Highlights

• Music industry shifts have forced artists like Sheryl Crow to focus on branding over music sales for income.
• Crow expresses disdain for streaming giants like Spotify, which pay artists very little for their music.
• Decline in album sales prompts Crow to take on licensing songs for commercials, a practice she used to oppose.

The music industry is a far cry from what it once was. The advent of Napster caused an initial shift, but the pivot away from physical media to streaming has altered music forever. These days, music really doesn't sell, and artists are finding new ways to generate the income that they once enjoyed.

Sheryl Crow has been a successful artist for decades, but even she is feeling the heat of declining music sales. In fact, Crow is now doing things she would have never considered before.

Let's hear how Crow is adjusting to the new state of the industry, and how she feels about the lack of pay that she gets from streaming platforms like Spotify.

Sheryl Crow Hates How Little Spotify Pays Artists

The music industry has changed a lot, and Sheryl Crow knows all too well that it will never be the same again.

In an interview with Bill Maher, Crow talked about the state of the music industry, and how artists are now focused on their brands first, as opposed to their music.

"[Now] you create your brand, you advertise yourself, you sell yourself. Then the music is just a byproduct of that, and you're selling yourself so that you can sell tickets and get advertisers. That was never part of the way I came up. There just was none of that. In fact, until Bob Dylan did the Victoria's Secret ad (in 2004), nobody did advertisements or took money for anything except for playing music and selling records. So, it's a different thing [now]," she told Maher, per Ultimate Classic Rock.

This is an interesting take, but not wrong. Making money through multiple business ventures is the name of the game, as album sales are effectively in the toilet.

Maher himself noted this, which prompted Crow to give her take on streaming giants like Spotify.

"You cannot make money. It makes me sad and sick.”

For the unfamiliar, Spotify doesn't pay much to the artists making your favorite music, and many hate that the streaming giant is able to successfully stick around this way.

Crow continued, "I hate it because, for me, when you sold records, you knew you had your people. They're people. They were into what you're doing. How does it even work now?”

As UCR noted, Twisted Sister's Dee Snider has also spoken out against Spotify's pay.

"Spotify, the wholesale, you pay the one monthly fee [format], we’re getting so, so little. And that guy from Spotify, he should be taken out and shot. When he heard that artists were complaining about how little we were paid, his response was ‘make more music.’ Like we’re producing cans of Coke," Snider said.

To make things worse, Crow's friend told InTouch that Crow was never interested in making money through licensing songs, which is an avenue that she is now taking.

"Sheryl always thought licensing songs for commercials was a sell-out, but she sees now it's the only way to keep a roof over her head. It's the end of the music business as she once knew it," her friend said.

For reference, InTouch noted that "While her 1993 debut studio album, Tuesday Night Music Club, sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, her 2019 release Threads moved a mere 40,000 copies as music fans flock to streaming services like Spotify, which shell out just $4,800 for a million spins."

A massive difference, indeed.

It's sad to see the state of the music industry, even for someone like Crow, who has sold countless albums, and has made millions of dollars.

Sheryl Crowe Has Made Millions With Her Music, Which Peaked In The 1990s And 2000s

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Sheryl Crow is worth an estimated $70 million.

"A nine-time GRAMMY AWARD recipient, Sheryl Crow is an American music icon. Her first nine studio albums have sold 35 million copies worldwide; seven of them charted in the Top 10 and five were certified for Multi-Platinum sales. In addition to such No. 1 hits as “All I Wanna Do,” “Soak Up the Sun” and “The First Cut Is the Deepest,” Crow has lofted 40 singles into the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Mainstream Top 40 and Hot Country Songs charts, with more No. 1 singles in the Triple A listings than any other female artist," per Music For The Mission.

That is an incredible amount of success, and even with that in her back pocket, things have gotten so bad in the music industry that she is forced to resort to tactics that she opposes just to make ends meet.

Sheryl Crow has adapted to the new state of the music industry, and one has to wonder how long it will be before she cashes in with a full catalogue sale.