Economics of Streaming & the Rise of the Music Artists’ Rights and Compensation

Jansher Verscht, Economics Student, University of Loughborough
Afzana Anwer, Head of IP, Altilium Clean Technology

As the big era of buying CDs and vinyl records has mostly passed, music streaming continues to hit the music industry by storm. It is a market estimated at $153 Billion [1] with no signs of saturation. Nearly 2 billion music discoveries happen on Spotify every day. Headlines continue to sweep across the news media and this month the FT reports [2] “Universal music strikes deal to reshape streaming economics”. Broad industry alignment is required to re-monetise the music making lifecycle to benefit artists, limit non-artist noise, and ensure a better-quality user experience. This is particularly challenging where current fragmented and inconsistent regulations across different jurisdictions are struggling to keep pace with technology developments.