Tracy Chapman refuses to stream music: “Artists get paid when you actually buy CD or vinyl”

Tracy Chapman has revealed she refuses to stream music, insisting that buying physical music is the only way for artists to get paid.

The singer-songwriter has given an interview to the New York Times in which she discusses her outlook on the current state of the music industry.

Answering a question about how much new music she listens to, she responded: “I do listen to music still. I don’t listen to as much as I used to, and I’m maybe going to date myself now, or someone’s going to call me a Luddite, but I don’t stream music.”

She explained: “I only buy music in physical form. Artists get paid when you actually buy a CD or the vinyl. That’s important to me.”

“So to some extent, it limits what I listen to, because it’s a physical commitment of going out into the world and finding things, but I still do go out.”

She went on to reflect on her rare public performance at the 2024 Grammys, which she said was “pretty awesome” for “all the young women in all their variety, doing their things.”

When asked if she was referring to Chappell Roan, she replied: “Yes, and Charli XCX. It’s not music that I would make, but I appreciate that we’re in this moment where there’s a path for artists like that, and they can even have success.”

At last year’s Grammys, she performed her classic song ‘Fast Cars’ alongside Luke Combs, the country star who had taken the song back into the charts in 2023 with a CMA Award-winning cover. Watch the rendition above.

The performance, her first in nine years, resulted in a 241 per cent increase in streams of the 1988 original, soaring from 248,000 daily streams to 949,000.

Chapman, 61, last released a new album in 2008 with ‘Our Bright Future’, her eighth studio record to date.

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