Impact on music itself

Then, what do artists do nowadays, to increase their earnings in this harsh competition?

In the pro rata system, the closest way to success is to increase the number of streams. So, what they usually do is to compose songs that are shorter and in more engaging structures.

When the song is shorter, the audience will be able to listen to the song for greater number of times in the same time duration. For example, in 30 minutes, if the song is 5 minutes long, 6 times is the maximum repeats, whereas if the song is only 3 minutes long, the audience will be able to repeat the song for 10 times. On the other hand, the trick with increasing the number of streams by changing the musical structures is a bit more complicated. And here, social media comes in again.

These days, Instagram and TikTok are one of the most popular social media among the young generation. Then, could you think of the feature that these two social media have in common? – Yes, the short-video sharing services (TikTok itself, and Instagram reels). Due to the breakthrough of these short videos, songs that people want to use for their short videos are now compositions with the most influences.

Not only directly, but this breakthrough has also affected the structure of music indirectly as well. On average, these short videos are 24 to 31 seconds. This shortened the attention span of teenagers a lot, and most people are now not patient enough to wait until the climax of the song comes. It is scary, isn’t it? So, the diagram below is the simplified change of the trend in musical structures:

Traditional structure of a song used to be: Intro Verse phrase Bridge phrase Climax phrase … ▶ ▶ ▶

Many popular songs nowadays are in the structure of: Climax phrase Intro Verse phrase Bridge phrase Climax phrase … ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶

Everything with a huge influence on people affect things both positively and negatively. There might be unethical laboring in the background of fast fashions. Airplanes are convenient transportation, but it is very harmful for the environment. What we see is not the full picture. We must not forget about the scenes behind the curtain. Do not only passively listen to the music. Start calling those music streaming services out. Start commenting on YouTube and sharing to your friends. Your small supports add up, and it will be a huge cheer for your favorite creator.