Streaming: The Music Industry’s Double-Edged Sword

Pedro Garcia, John Hancock, Junior, Fall 2025

The music industry has undergone a fundamental shift in the past two decades, pivoting from ownership to access. Before streaming, consumers purchased physical records from retail stores, creating direct revenue from buyer to artist through record labels. With the rise of services like Spotify, listeners now pay for access rather than ownership, which is a shift that has reconfigured how music earns money and reaches audiences.

In the pre-streaming model, each album sale was a larger, concrete transaction. Streaming, however, generates smaller but recurring payments each time a song is played. Although this model offers steady revenue, average earnings per song have declined. According to Statista, “CD album sales in the United States have dropped by 95 percent since peaking in 2000 and are currently at their lowest level since 1986” (Richter, 2022). Physical media is less efficient due to production and distribution costs, while digital delivery is far cheaper, allowing a song to be streamed millions of times at no extra expense.

Despite lower per-song revenue, streaming revived the industry overall. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reports that global recorded-music revenue fell from about $25 billion in 1999 to $14 billion in 2014 before rising again to nearly $29.6 billion in 2024 (Oakley, 2025). This trend shows how streaming rescued the industry even as it hurt the physical market. 

However, physical formats carry sentimental and cultural value. Avid music listener Phillip Dedina explains that “having the actual album makes it feel like mine. On a platform, it’s like sharing or a trial, but not the real thing. I like that someday my grandkids will see my CDs and know what I was listening to.” Similarly, Rick Wojcik, co-founder of Chicago’s Dusty Groove record store, further describes this sentiment. “People need something to hold and have.” Streaming may be “hyperradio,” offering everything instantly, but owning a record makes it feel personal. Whether for sound, nostalgia, or collecting, physical media offers something streaming cannot.

Though streaming has made music more accessible industry-wide, it has widened the gap between major players and independent artists. The industry flourishes, but the meaning of ownership continues to evolve.