We all know how streaming music has resulted in performers and songwriters getting abysmally-small payouts compared to physical media. I’ve written on this a number of times in the past, including running numbers established by the RIAA and various streaming platforms.

Aside from the obvious payout issues, another often overlooked side effect of streaming is that EVERY song is essentially a single. This may sound good on the surface, because fans can easily find and listen to what used to me called “album cuts” or “deep cuts” – songs that you previously could only get if you purchased a whole album. Sounds convenient, yes, but it comes at a cost…

With physical media, if you wanted a particular song, you had to either go buy the single (which usually had a second “B-side” song on it), or you’d go buy an album that included the song you want plus 9 or so others. Either way, odds are that if you purchased a copy of one song, you most likely got at least one additional song (if not several) with that purchase. If an album or single was successful, EVERY writer who had a song included on said release got a check from that sale just by virtue of being included. There are writers who have Gold and Platinum albums hanging on their wall simply because they were lucky enough to get one of their songs included on that album, even if that song was skipped by most listeners on repeat plays. When it comes to physical media, a sale is a sale, whether it’s ever played or not.

With streaming, however, the benefit of having an album cut goes out the window, because payouts are now calculated PER SONG instead of PER RELEASE. If an album with 10-12 songs is released to streaming, and only 4 of those songs get repeat plays, then ONLY those 4 songs get the payout. Sure, a song may get RECOGNITION for being included on an album that eventually reaches Gold or Platinum status, but recognition and a couple dollars will get you a candy bar if you’re lucky.

This is part of the reason that more and more artists are ditching full-length albums in favor of digital singles and EP’s. Why spend the money to record “fillers” to complete an album when those fillers will most likely be skipped or ignored when released digitally? Brian Free & Assurance has adopted this method in earnest with their last several releases, going so far as to tell fans that they have no plans to record a full-length album any time in the near future.

And no, it’s not just artists who are having to adapt. With fewer slots for songs available, the pressure is on for songwriters. Gone are the days of a “decent” song getting picked up by an artist to complete an album; every song has to be approached as if it were going to be a single. While this may sound like a no-brainer (who wants to write an “ok” song, after all??), there are quite a few songwriters who have made a career (until recently, anyway) out of writing album cuts and “filler” material.

Think of it this way – when you see a movie, you usually have 2-3 “stars” who headline the film, several “character actors” who help populate the film, and a number of extras in the background. The singles from an album could be considered the “stars,” while the album cuts are the “character actors” – they’re not used to market or promote the album, but they go a LONG way towards helping establish both the album’s and the artist’s overall style and sound, just like solid characters help establish the situations, circumstances, and motivations for the “stars” of a film.

In addition, album cuts used to be a great way for artists to find material. Some major hits across many genres have been the result of an artist finding a song on another artist’s album. Randy Owen (lead singer for the band Alabama) told the story of getting a phone call from Conway Twitty, asking if they were going to release “Lady Down On Love” as a single. The band ultimately did release it as a single, but Conway wound up covering another album cut by Alabama a couple years later (and releasing it as his own single, which went on to become a hit). As an indie artist myself, album cuts are a great way to find good material that may have slipped through the cracks, or at the very least, haven’t been overdone.

Ignoring the technical and audio comparisons between streaming and physical media (yes, Scotty, we know you prefer vinyl), this is probably one of the biggest impacts that streaming has had on the music industry that not many people talk about or even consider. The entire business model of albums (and album cuts) has been flipped on its head, and it’s not the face on the cover that is most impacted; it’s the names in the liner notes that are hit hardest.