What is the value of a stream in 2025?

More parties than ever are becoming frustrated with streaming. For even many successful artists, streaming is a minority income stream, as fandom-related endeavours like live performances, merchandise, and brand deals prove to be more lucrative. Yet as more artists and labels adopt fandom-focused strategies, many are finding that streaming in its current state is ill-equipped for fandom-building, too.

In MIDiA’s 2024 independent label survey, over half of the labels surveyed agreed that streaming is not a place to build artist fandom, and three-quarters agreed that it is time for a new model to run alongside streaming (source: MIDiA Research Independent Label and Distributor Survey 2024). Of course, streaming revenue is not an issue for everyone – larger labels stand to benefit the most from streaming’s pro rata remuneration model, but even they are unhappy with the current framework. As streams are not providing much financial value to the vast majority of artists, nor are they particularly helpful for building fandom, it is worth questioning the value of a stream in today’s climate. However, streams do still matter – as an indicator of artist success rather than a cause.

Every stream tells a different story

The changing role of a stream is largely tied to the rise of passive listening. As music consumption has become more reliant on algorithmic recommendations, there is less conscious choice when streaming, making it difficult to compare to historical consumption formats like physical purchases or digital downloads. With these formats, buying music was always an active choice – it had a tangible cost, and was a permanent investment. Streaming a song, however, is not the same investment – a person can listen to a song as many (or as few) times as they wish and still have spent the same amount of money.

Still, streams and purchases are treated similarly by the recording industry (at least when it comes to metrics). Streams were initially measured as a digital method of purchasing an album, with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) classifying 150 streams as the equivalent of a single unit and 1,500 streams as the equivalent of an album unit for certification (per RIAA). However, stream counts conflate active and passive behaviour, losing the nuance that once came from the division of radio and retail. With streams, it is impossible to tell how a song is being listened to – one person listening to the same song 150 times and 150 people each listening once are counted the same. It is even harder to understand why – whether a user is streaming a song because they need background music for studying, because they are the artist’s biggest fan, because the platform’s algorithm recommended it, or simply out of curiosity.

There have been steps to rectify this issue, such as Spotify’s new “Super Listeners” analytics tools. However, the data shared by Spotify only serves to highlight a key challenge of the streaming era – while these “super listeners” are dedicated fans who on average contribute more than 18% of an artist’s monthly streams, they make up only 2% of monthly listeners. More people than ever are streaming music, but as a result, the proportion of engaged listeners is actually decreasing. 

Who do streams matter to?

Streams mask a wide variety of listening behaviours which are, in turn, valued differently depending on the stakeholder. For labels, high streaming numbers contribute to market share, so scaling is imperative. Sheer market share is less of a concern for artists, however – reaching and building fans is increasingly their priority. Music consumption may be happening on streaming, but artist discovery often takes place elsewhere, as less than three in ten consumers place traditional DSP streaming among their top three methods for discovering new music. Notably, YouTube is the most popular place of discovery (source: MIDiA Research Consumer Survey Q4 2024).

For artists, streams are becoming less of a way for generating fandom, and more a symptom of existing fandom. However, even when treated as a fandom indicator, streams offer limited insight.  Artists can see when consumers are listening, but not how or why, nor can they distinguish easily between passive listener and fan listener. Artists should look to other fandom expressions – including offline ones – to gain a fuller understanding of their audience, rather than treating streaming metrics as the end-all-be-all.  

Fandom first, streams second

Streaming is no longer the only way for artists to be successful. As a growing number of artists shift focus away from sheer stream count and towards new, fandom-centric strategies, streaming numbers are becoming less of an ironclad goal and more of a consequence of success in other areas. That is not to say that streaming is no longer meaningful – it is the dominant form of music consumption today, and the main driver of the recording industry. However, by honing in on other success metrics – like identity resonance, a major indicator of fandom – artists can begin to let go of the numbers game. If they focus on cultivating fandom, streams will inevitably follow.