base talk Has streaming made it easier to have longevity?

[Intuition]

Back in the day, you could be a major popstar and one poorly received album could completely derail your career and you'd be pretty much irrelevant. 

Especially when the Hot 100 relied heavily on Airplay in the pre and early-internet days, if radio stations stopped playing your music and you stopped being booked for gigs, there wasn't really much you could do.

Similarly, you could still be successful and A-list but your hit making days would be over when radio decided that you were too old, so a lot of acts may not have as much "longevity" when it comes to having Hot 100 entries. 

This trend continued in the digital era, but I feel like streaming has changed everything so artists can have more longevity and if you are a mainstream star, you will never completely fall out and may even continually get top 10 hits (even if they fall quickly after).

I feel like Katy was the last major act to completely bomb into near oblivion and I think in the future, it will become more and more difficult for this to occur. 

[Jjang]

It’s pretty evident at this point. 

[Devin]

Not exactly, talent and a solid fanbase still factors.

 

Many rappers and popstars holding multi 500M+ streams rn are fizzling out bc of changing music trends or they cannot match the popularity of their hit projects. 

[DawnAnti]

Isn’t it obvious ?

[halcyonday]

4 minutes ago, Intuition said:

I feel like Katy was the last major act to completely bomb into near oblivion and I think in the future, it will become more and more difficult for this to occur. 

Even Katy's "near oblivion" state brings 53M listeners monthly on Spotify alone 

[Intuition]

1 minute ago, halcyonday said:

Even Katy's "near oblivion" state brings 53M listeners monthly on Spotify alone 

 Carried entirely by her past hits, which is an added layer. Streaming has definitely helped legacy acts too.  

The point is someone like Dua or Ariana will never have an era that performs like Witness or Smile in the near future. 

A good thing for newer artists, but unfortunate for past acts. 

[Yuanyu]

Obviously 

[Jude]

Obviously not.

[Gorjesspazze9]

Actually depends, cuz some of these new artist are hot for like one Tiktok trend and then thier streams die down and they are over within a month. 

[Axelios]

Not necessarily. It's true that it made radio less important but any artist can still fall off if his music isn't liked anymore.

Edited April 15, 2023 by Axelios

[Armani?]

Not necessarily 

 

Lil Pump is an example

 

	SPOTIFY
Gucci Gang	628,095,387	45,984

YOUTUBE

Lil Pump - Gucci Gang [Official Music Video]

1,158,443,720

55,113

 

 

If you're a fad, you're a fad

 

[chaklux]

Anyone can still fall off. Yes, they continue to stream your old hits but an artist relevance is mostly based on their recent releasea performance which can still perform poorly on streaming if it's not clicking. 

[Bosque]

Not necessarily, but it has become much easier for new or "washed up" artists to land another hit if they have a good song

[Zoomer]

Not necessarily, on the contrary music became more accessible and a flop single/era would make artists easily disposable. 

[Jynx]

Yes. Also a good indicator as to whether or not an artist has a memorable discography/hits. Like Taylor who is dominating every avenue and charting multiple albums on WW charts; And MJ who has a 1.3 billion+ streamed classic song from the 80s. 

[Caribbean Boy]

Yess definitely…..also made it easier for someone to get a diamond record when their song had little to no impact or charisma…..

[Delirious]

3 hours ago, Armani? said:

Not necessarily 

 

Lil Pump is an example

 

	SPOTIFY
Gucci Gang	628,095,387	45,984

YOUTUBE

Lil Pump - Gucci Gang [Official Music Video]

1,158,443,720

55,113

 

 

If you're a fad, you're a fad

 

Girl 💀

 

Swae lee is another example. Close to me is doing like 77k daily and it's his 6th most popular song on Spotify. It's not even Ellie's 20th most popular. His recurrent streams must be terrible 

[RobynYoBank]

Obviously. An increasing proportion of the longest charting songs and albums are all from the last 10 years.

[Stepfon]

It all depends on the artist and if they have the fanbase and GP on their side. 

[WildHeart]

4 hours ago, Intuition said:

The point is someone like Dua or Ariana will never have an era that performs like Witness or Smile in the near future. 

Ed's new bomb will surprise us 

[Orsay]

of course it helps with successful songs/albums having more longevity on the chart

 

but in terms of career trajectory, nah. look at Post Malone, huge streaming force for years then his most recent effort basically bombed for his standards for no apparent reason

[PrudenceHCharmed]

We have songs spending 100 weeks on chart but we also have those serving 1-OUT be it Hot 100 or 200. It depends on the artist and the material. Those who transitioned well i.e Beyoncé/Shakira will serve longevity. Those veteran artists Madonna/Celine/ Barbra/Xtina/Britney (?)/Alicia/Usher will most likely served 1-OUT next era if the GP isn't giving them any chances.

[vale9001]

It is even a question?.

Back in the day fans (and people in general) bought an album and then they listened to it on repeat. We didn't have trace of this, so it was difficult to sell an album after 1 or 2 year whithout the promotion ..people interested in It had the album already.

 

In the 80s thriller would have been a 10 years plus album on BB 200 like Bruno Mars debut album, in early 2000s Eminem would have been like Drake or even Better in terms of all the discography in the BB 200 for consecutive years.

 

Shania or Alanis biggest albums with the same weeks on charts as 1989 and 21 probably. 

 

while I don't think for the Britney Christina Pink etc ..generation would have been so different. 

Edited April 15, 2023 by vale9001

[burninredhot]

Not really. Back when everyone bought digital or physical singles charts didn't really know how much a song was listened to.. but now through streaming we do 

[Klein]

2 hours ago, Orsay said:

of course it helps with successful songs/albums having more longevity on the chart

 

but in terms of career trajectory, nah. look at Post Malone, huge streaming force for years then his most recent effort basically bombed for his standards for no apparent reason

 

It's getting harder and harder for artists to be true superstars in the streaming era and they more easily get forgotten.