Songwriter and producer Gavin Castleton has written a long guest post for Hypebot criticising the theory that music should be like water – as proposed by consultants like Gerd Leonhard, but also Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. It’s too long to summarise properly in a paragraph, but is well worth a read for an alternative perspective on the debate. One interesting point: he notes that he has benefited from his music being discovered on streaming services, leading to an increase in sales. “But isn’t it possible that those sales are primarily attributed to older users who grew up paying for music? Do we really expect those sales to continue once the market is comprised entirely of kids raised in the age of free streaming? Remember how our parents paid for long distance calling?” Another criticism: “Proponents of the Music Like Water concept have put far more thought into making everything free to the consumer than they have into making sure people can find what they want, and in order for artists and consumers to have a better experience with music, distribution and filtering have to be lockstep.”
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