Music, TV series, and movies creator have had a thorny with the Internet. Its seen mostly as a enemy rather than an ally, since its easy for people to share media among themselves without the creators getting anything from their hard work.
The real question here isn't how to prevent people from sharing, but how to enable them to do so in a way that its easy and that benefits the creators as well.
Streaming services like Spotify, which I use and personally love, has make it a lot easier to listen to artist I already enjoy listening to and to discover new music. For me it has given me a practical way to enjoy music in a way that the artist can benefit as well, which is the ideal situation.
While I've issues with Spotify being proprietary, and that it uses digital rights management(DRM), I do believe its a step in a good direction to enable artists to receive the income they deserve. I'd love to see Spotify becoming free and open source software, and ditch DRM, its a start. And while there are free and open source options out there, like OBS Studio, none comes close to give me what Spotify does.
We need to give artists more reasons to use streaming services to release the music, and not to use DRM. It can be done, I do see these services as beneficial for the relationship of artists and their fans to connect with each other in a deeper way than ever before.
The question artists should be making is not why should they use streaming services. It should be how can I use it to make meaningful connections with my fans that are beneficial for everyone involved. Embracing it, and actively making it better way to make media available to fans, is way better than trying people stop using it.
The Internet is here to stay, and people will share media on it one way or another. So, how can we make it practical and easier for people to do so in a way that helps creator earn a living. I strongly believe that streaming services are key to make that a reality.
