polled a sample of nearly 1300 adults in the US on topics including cost, overall experience, artist compensation and general familiarity with classical music.
The survey also polled on an issue that probably isn’t top-of-mind for most general listeners, but matters a lot to performers, which is compensation. To the extent that the public knows anything about how artists are paid for plays of streamed songs, they assume – rightly – that those payouts are small, particularly in comparison to what they used to be in the days of physical media. According to the study, only 9% of Americans believe performers are paid fairly by streaming platforms.
The problem is, the most intense music fans tend to have extremely refined tastes and deep knowledge of their preferred genres. They represent that classic “long tail” of the market, and, for mainstream providers, it is not worth investing more effort to meet the demands of these listeners.