Vol. 7, Issue 2, Part E (2025)

The digital transformation of the music business has brought about a radical shift in the production, dissemination, and consumption of music. In this piece, we examine how digital platforms such as Spotify and YouTube have increased the accessibility of music, prompted greater participation from independent musicians, and connected listeners worldwide. The study found that artists are shifting from depending on record companies to a platform-based environment that enables them to interact directly with fans. In order to determine if streaming data, content distribution strategies, and algorithmic recommendation systems really advance equality or whether they instead create new hierarchies motivated by commercial interests and data-driven algorithms, this research looks at these platforms. Using secondary sources including platform analytics, global reports, and scholarly literature, the research adopts a descriptive and analytical approach. According to the findings, while websites like Spotify and YouTube have improved the way people find new music and made it easier for up-and-coming artists to get their music scene, they have also helped to maintain some inequality through their funding biases and opaque recommendation algorithms that favour well-known content. The digital music business is contradictory because it consolidates money and power while simultaneously making music more accessible. Platform openness and policy-level improvements, as suggested in the paper's conclusion, may lead to a more fair distribution of opportunities within the digital soundscape. Overall, the research demonstrates that digital platforms serve as both gatekeepers and facilitators in the evolving musical democratisation landscape.