Until Taylor Swift’s 1989 album came out this week, there were no platinum albums to be had this entire year. That’s a first ever in the music industry and it’s unfortunately going to become the norm as music gradually becomes more singles oriented, and streaming officially takes over for good.

That CD player in your computer. Kiss it goodbye. Apple already did.

I do applaud Taylor Swift’s camp for taking all her albums off of Spotify, I’m sure it helped contribute to some of the big sales (though the marketing and single behind that album has been brilliant) but I honestly think Spotify isn’t the recording artists biggest enemy. Youtube should be holding that high honor. Youtube pays artists even less of what Spotify dishes out and has an audience that dwarfs Spotify’s (by the way, Spotify claims it pays roughlt 0.6 cents per stream to artists, which really isn’t all that bad compared to Pandora ,which is a house of horrors and whole another post in itself).  If I wanted to right now, I could probably find Swift’s whole 1989 album streaming on Youtube in about 5 minutes. EVERYONE still goes to Youtube first for music. Yes, Spotify has been making strides in streaming every year, but Youtube is still the biggest baddest streaming website out there. It just is. And that’s where the real fight for artists royalties should began. Because the money clearly isn’t going to becoming from album sales. Soon, the gold record will become obsolete as well.

If you’re a  recording artist, you have to be aware of this. Radio still dominates for singles. Pop culture doesn’t care about your masterpiece 10 song album. I do

The internet killed the CD, which doubled back and killed the itunes store for good measure. Streaming is here and it’s the future. Or you can just shake it off like Ms. Swift.