(Hypebot) — 120,000 new tracks are uploaded to music streaming services every day, according to Luminate data shared at last week’s Music Biz Conference. That’s up 28.4% from an average of 93,400 tracks uploaded per day in 2022.
If these daily averages are maintained, 43.8 million new tracks will be uploaded to Spotify, Apple Music, and other streamers this year.
In addition to a still-growing DIY movement and outliers like white noise tracks, new trends, including sped-up and slowed-down cover tracks and a glut of AI-generated music, are accelerating the upward trend.
Should all tracks be treated equally?
The glut of new music has become a source of consternation for some in the music industry, particularly at the major labels.
“Most of this AI content on DSPs comes from the prior generation of AI, a technology that is not trained on copyrighted IP and that produces very poor quality output with virtually no consumer appeal,” said Universal Music Group CEO Sir Lucian Grainge during a recent earnings call.
Sony boss Rob Stringer offered a more pragmatic outlet: “I completely understand [why some say] that the sheer volume of content [being uploaded] in streaming is a threat to us. Yet our profit margins are higher than ever; our market share is positive; and we’re having more hits than [we’ve had in any year over] the previous 20 years.
What about indie artists?
The completion problem is even more acute for independent artists with limited resources. But this kind of imbalance is also something their used to overcoming by finding their tribes in the niches and nurturing them to profitably.
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.
