Streaming has been invaluable,” begins Glass Animals singer Dave Bayley, from the back of a tour bus bound for Glasgow. His band’s 2014 song Gooey currently stands at nearly 68m

 Spotify streams, and was instrumental in turning Glass Animals into what Music Week recently described as “international streaming sensations”. Bayley looks back on the initial streaming success of Gooey with a mixture of confusion and amazement: “We looked at all the streaming services’ viral charts and, for some reason, we were at the top of them. Off the back of that, everything else happened.”

You could be forgiven for raising an eyebrow at the notion of a “streaming artist”. Ten years ago, an unknown singer called Sandi Thom stormed to No 1 after livestreaming gigs from her south London basement. Her success was a masterpiece of implied causality. It wasn’t the livestreams, whose true popularity has since been queried, that rocketed her to No 1 – it was the fact that they provided an irresistible story to the established media.
(Streams ahead: the artists who made it huge without radio support)

(Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, Pandora, and Apple Music Compete for Musicians 2016) 

("Streaming" 2016) 

Swift also forced Apple to reconsider its policy regarding withholding musicians' royalties for music streamed during the free-trial period for Apple Music. Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Apple's Internet Software and Services, reacted immediately, and tweeted, "Apple will always make sure that artists are paid. #AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer's free trial period." Swift later released her newest album only to Apple Music.

(Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, Pandora, and Apple Music Compete for Musicians 2016)