Study Shows Musicians Stuck in Streaming Paradox
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- Oxford Internet Institute surveyed ~1,200 musicians across Brazil, Chile, Netherlands, Nigeria, and South Korea, uncovering a "streaming paradox" of high visibility but low earnings.
- Nigeria reported that 83% of its musicians felt their careers improved since streaming, the highest positive impact among the surveyed nations.
- Netherlands had only 14% of musicians indicating career improvement from streaming, the lowest among the surveyed nations.
- Chile showed that 30% of musicians spend more than half of their working time on tasks such as updating social media, planning tours, or communicating with fans.
- Dr. Robert Prey said streaming is essential for visibility but contributes little to actual income and forces musicians to become content creators and audience managers.
- Netherlands artists are the most worried about AI-generated music flooding streaming platforms and competing with human-created art.
Why it matters: Low‑income musicians lose financially as streaming royalties remain tiny despite higher visibility, while platform owners and record labels reap the engagement benefits; the extra promotional labor required forces artists to allocate more time to social media and fan management, reshaping career priorities.
