Is Spotify killing the music industry?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 16 June 2022
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Not so long ago the music industry was threatened like it had never been before as online piracy tore into the profit margins of record labels the world over. Often hailed as the saviour, Spotify stepped in and offered audiences a new way of enjoying their favourite artists and without the need to illegally download pirated material. Despite this, musical artists are becoming increasingly vocal about how difficult it is to make a living from streaming, all whilst record labels and Spotify are reporting huge profit margins.
This week, Tanya Beckett takes a closer at how online streaming services are affecting the music industry. Produced by: Chris Blake and Louise Clarke-Rowbotham Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Anyone that helps people who are accused of sorcery |
| 0:03.2 | are also blamed for being sorcerers. |
| 0:05.7 | Life's less ordinary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:09.0 | Real people with extraordinary stories. |
| 0:11.9 | I started having a strength in me. |
| 0:14.8 | I have to stand up for other women. |
| 0:16.8 | Find out more at the end of this podcast. |
| 0:24.1 | Welcome to the inquiry with me, Tonya Beckett. |
| 0:28.0 | Each week, one question for expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:36.0 | It was a piece of music that only people older than 50 were familiar with. |
| 0:41.0 | And even then, it probably was quite a while since they'd heard it. |
| 0:44.7 | But in May this year, a popular American TV series played a track |
| 0:49.2 | from the 1980s. And it picked up a whole new audience. |
| 0:54.0 | The musician who recorded it is British. |
| 0:59.8 | Kate Bush has never played a concert in America. |
| 1:02.8 | And her song was released nearly 40 years ago. |
| 1:06.8 | The song she wrote running up that hill is about love and heartbreak. |
| 1:12.6 | And so it resonated deeply with the 18-30 Watchers of sci-fi drama Stranger Things. |
| 1:20.0 | So much so that in May it reached nearly 9 million streams a day on Spotify, |
| 1:26.4 | making it the most successful track in the world on the platform during that period. |
| 1:32.4 | It was the latest example of how streaming services have changed the music industry. |
| 1:38.4 | But is it all for the better? |
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