In one of the most thoughtful pieces I’ve recently read and disagreed with, David Byrne argues that Spotify and other streaming services are bad because they contribute to a “blockbuster culture” where big labels and big artists reap all the rewards.

Spotify certainly doesn’t seem perfect as is, but I think that it’s going way too far to damn all streaming services on the basis of fault with Spotify’s relatively meager payments. Specifically, if your fear is the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, it seems just plain wrong to argue that streaming services are going to be—in the long term—a bad thing.

The time-sensitive nature of Byrne’s argument is illustrated by his mention that Amazon digital downloads are preferable to Spotify. Remember, though, when a lot of artists were against any form of digital downloading—iTunes, Amazon, you name it—because they feared that pirating digital content would be too easy? Now the world has adjusted, and all of a sudden Apple and Amazon are looking like the good guys.

I guess you could say that it just shows how far downhill the music industry has gone, that Amazon digital downloads look like the best-case scenario, but think back to that pre-digital world. Is it easier or harder for your average local indie band to find an audience, to make a few bucks, to build a fan base they can tour behind? Think about everything the digital revolution hath wrought: SoundCloud, Kickstarter, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and many other ways that artists can essentially become their own publicists and record labels.

“But,” you say, “wasn’t it better when artists didn’t have to be their own publicists and record labels?” Sure…if you’re David Byrne. The old system worked for him: Talking Heads were discovered and signed to a major label. Byrne cites his collaborator St. Vincent as an example of an artist who’s getting screwed by the new system—and yes, it may well be true that St. Vincent would have a more secure income in the old label-driven, hard-copy model. St. Vincent, though, is also one of the winners: an artist who’s been discovered.

What about the thousands and thousands of other artists? What about Psy, who couldn’t have become a global sensation without YouTube? Would Macklemore have blown up as quickly as he did if there weren’t streaming services and DJs had to be convinced to play his stuff? What about the likes of Tristen, who funded her wonderful new album with a Kickstarter and is using social media to build her national audience while she tours behind it? What about Pete & Annie, friends of my dad’s who self-recorded a single song and have sold—I’m guessing—a few dozen copies on iTunes? Pete & Annie, and lots of other artists, simply wouldn’t have any national or international distribution without digital streaming and downloading services.

Arguments that media change has gone too far are always risky, because they so often look silly in a few years’ or decades’ time. Millennials remember the anti-downloading campaign; Baby Boomers and people on the older end of Gen X will remember the anti-taping campaign; some seniors might even vaguely remember the anti-radio campaign; and I don’t think anyone is old enough to remember the anti-recording campaign—but there was one. All of those technologies were, in turn, assailed for undercutting musicians’ livelihoods and spelling the demise of music. There have been parallel arguments in other media industries: book publishing, filmmaking, you name it.

In that context, it sounds pretty far-fetched for Byrne to warn that music could dry up because Spotify will suddenly remove all meaningful material incentives. Spotify’s model is obviously imperfect, but so have all the models been. Can we do better than Spotify? Sure. Should we be nostalgic for the good old days of the pre-digital (or pre-streaming) music industry? Absolutely not—because the bottom line is that the Internet has, is, and will open more doors for more artists. Just as the digital revolution is undermining blockbuster culture among books, so will it undermine blockbuster culture among recordings. It already is, no matter how stingy Spotify is being right now.

– Jay Gabler