How much of listening to streaming services translates into financially supporting those bands?

In the years since Bikini Kill split up, the physical object of music has largely gone away, though vinyl records have actually been setting sales records every year since 2008. Slim Moon tells me that the physical thing of records never mattered much to him, though he does prefer analog recordings to digital. Bikini Kill is, according to Kathi, doing things in much the same way as they did back in the ‘90s: Tobi Vail (also the drummer of the band) is handling mail order of the records and t-shirts, and each package includes a note. But the world that those packages are sent into is very different than it was in 1992. Most people don’t actually buy records or CDs, or even MP3s: a growing number of people simply stream music through services like Rdio or Spotify. Bikini Kill's music was available under the KRS imprint on both Spotify and Rdio until very recently, and though it's not currently available, they tell me it should be back soon. When asked about streaming music, Wilcox admits that she’s not really a fan of them. “It's just a crappy deal for the bands, exposure or not. I know a lot of people really love those streaming services, and they say they hear about a lot of bands they would otherwise never hear, but how much of that translates into financially supporting those bands?” Of a recent Pitchfork editorial about the state of the music industry (and streaming music profits for artists) by Galaxie 500 frontman Damon Krukowski, Wilcox says it’s “hard to argue with his analysis.” She admits, however, that for most independent (not signed to one of the major corporate labels) bands, touring was and remains the main source of income. Still, her punk rock sensibility doesn’t allow her to write off the open internet: “In one way, I like the idea of everything free and streaming because it seems cooler and more punk rock — but the reality is that then people in bands have to have day jobs to survive, and that might mean they make fewer records or break up altogether.” She also says that she doesn’t know how we could “put the genie back into the bottle,” now that music is simply out there, free to consume. I ask Slim a similar question, and while he’s hesitant to comment on the state of the industry he left five years ago, he says that the internet’s effect on the music industry has been similar to every new technological advance: “we always gain something and lose something too.”

We've gathered a riot grrrl playlist together on Rdio and Spotify for your listening pleasure.