Islands In The Stream: Binge Watching, Spotify and Changing The Way We Create
The impact of technological mediums on the way in which art is presented, created and consumed is undeniable. In the case of television, the rise of streaming services has resulted in new consumer habits — “binge watching” marathons in which an entire series of a show is consumed in one sitting. These new viewing habits have led to changes in the writing of these shows, resulting in stories that are more complex and move away from the self-contained ‘episodic’ format of the sitcom format. The changes to the release and consumption of music have been no less drastic, but have in fact gone in an entirely different direction.
The most obvious change with music is the impact on the album format. Whereas television shows have become more complex and involved, relying on the presentation of a series as a whole narrative, streaming has seen music releases moving away from the album format as a single piece of art to be consumed in one sitting to smaller disconnected releases. These singles and collaborations are often released “without the anchor of a larger project to boost publicity — or even the promise that they would belong to any sort of full album in the future” (Olivier, 2018) catering to listeners shorter attentions spans and more distracted consumption habits.
These factors are further influenced by the trend of listeners consuming curated playlists of related songs, groupings of similar artists organised by genre and mood that are the main way in which new music is consumed on the Spotify platform. The biggest impact of these playlists is the discovery of new artists, as listeners will consume all the songs by varied artists on a tailored playlist rather than consume an album by a single artist. Yonak (2019) describes this trend with the simple statement “when finding new artists is made easy for us, we take the opportunity”.
McLuhan’s statement that ‘medium is the message’ also applies to music streaming services. Whereas the Spotify platform focuses on playlists of single songs, Bandcamp’s service is “operating in an entirely different world” (Krukowski, 2020), functioning as a sort of online record store in which artists can sell their music (as digital files as well as physical products) directly to fans. Tellingly, the main similarity between the two platforms are the recommendation features which suggest new artists based on previous listens or purchases.
Technological mediums have dramatically changed the way in which audiences consume media. While television audiences have become accustomed to absorbing shows a series at a time, music listeners are much less patient. The way in which these mediums present their content has longer reaching consequences, influencing the creation of further works in ways that favour the platforms and their audiences.
References
Olivier, B. (2018). What’s In Store For The Album Format as Streaming Keeps Breaking All The Rules? Experts Weigh In. Billboard. Retrieved from:
Yonak, R. (2019). How Spotify Has Changed The Way We Listen To Music. Retrieved from: https://audioxide.com/articles/how-spotify-has-changed-the-way-we-listen-to-music/
Krukowski, D. (2020). A Tale of Two Ecosystems: On Bandcamp, Spotify And The Wide-Open Future. Retrieved from:https://www.npr.org/2020/08/19/903547253/a-tale-of-two-ecosystems-on-bandcamp-spotify-and-the-wide-open-future
