Streaming: Independent Artists Expose the Exploitation Behind Digital Entertainment

By Roger Paradiso

Streaming is a scam against the independent artists according to Vince Gill. “Income streams are dwindling. Record sales aren’t what they used to be. The devaluation of music and what it’s now deemed to be worth is laughable to me. My single cost 99 cents. That’s what a [single] cost in 1960. On my phone, I can get an app for 99 cents that makes fart noises — the same price as the thing I create and speak to the world with. Some would say the fart app is more important. Creative brains are being sorely mistreated.” – Vince Gill (The Boot) and American Songwriter.

When Grammy Award winner and country superstar Vince Gill speaks, the artists and fans listen. But without much more advocacy from others, the Entertainment Industrial Complex will just dust Gill off their shoulders.

Two independent New York City music artists weighed in on these huge subjects.

Christine Obiamalu

“Streaming is huge, but the payouts are pretty small, so it’s hard to make a living off streams alone. You really have to hustle—do gigs, teach, maybe even work with brands or sell merch. It hasn’t necessarily stagnated, but it’s definitely changed in a way that makes it harder to rely on just one thing for income.

“When someone uses your song without asking, it feels like they’re taking a piece of you. I think it’s important for younger people to understand that musicians need support to keep creating. We all want our art to be heard, but it should happen in a way that respects the work behind it.”

Judy Gorman

“I made almost no money for my recordings; it was mostly concert fees. How musicians starting now manage to continue is beyond me…even when they are extraordinary. I believe what we have in the U.S.A. is  capitalism for most people and socialism for the richest 1%.

“Bad enough how exploitative the music business has always treated artists…but for artists (and others) to exploit other artists is ultimately a kind of “mutually assured destruction. It is a kind of artistic and moral cannibalism.

“I was offered a gig at a club on Bleecker St. at $40 a week for six sets a week!  I asked the owner “Why would I do this?” He said, “For the exposure!”  I said, “I have a raincoat if I want to expose myself!”

What are the problems? Streaming. AI. Copyright. Piracy. What is the solution? The musicians and artists have to unite and boycott the Entertainment Industrial Complex. A strike wasn’t enough it seems.

What does piracy have to do with all this? Ruth Vitale of CreativeFuture has an answer.

“For over 30 years, I worked as a studio executive responsible for acquiring or producing indie films and distributing them. Bootlegged copies had always threatened to end filmmakers’ careers, sometimes before they had even started. But piracy skyrocketed with the advent of online streaming.

“The creative industries are an integral part of the U.S. economy. Copyrighted media including films, television, books, music, software, video games, and more generate $1.8 trillion/year and 9.6 million jobs. That amounts to 7.76% of GDP and 4.88% of the national workforce.

“Unfortunately, widespread streaming piracy undercuts all of those economic contributions. Video piracy costs the U.S. economy between $29.2 and $71 billion, as well as between 230,000 and 560,000 jobs, every year. As a study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce concludes, “All of the benefits that streaming brings to our economy have been artificially capped by digital piracy.”

What and who is an independent artist?

The late Seymour Cassel, a great actor in many independent John Cassavetes films (Faces, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie) says this about independent film.

“Independent film is film that has thought in it. There’s no independent thought in studio films. It’s a collective thought. These things you get from Hollywood are no more than computer games… With independent film, simply because they don’t have the money to make a big-budget film, they’re forced to make a story that’s important…a personal story… where you can see the love of the characters… The acting tells your story. It’s what people relate to. If you don’t believe the characters, it doesn’t work.”

It’s all about respect, isn’t it?

It’s time for an intervention. It’s time people and congress save their independent artists. The rest of the world is waiting to see us change this exploitation.

In the meantime, artists do what they do. “There’s nothing like turning your thoughts and feelings into something people can connect with. It can get expensive and take a lot of time, especially if you’re independent, but it’s totally worth it,” says Obiamalu.

Gorman adds, “When I can connect to an audience…in words and music, it is transformational; it is bona fide magic!”