With paltry streaming royalties and a cost-of-touring crisis, it’s harder than ever to make money as a musician. Claudia Cockerell on the household names who are taking up side hustles, and what it says about the state of the music industry
In another thread someone said Spotify is paying out 17k per month for her streams. And that’s only Spotify. If she’s making more on OF, that means there are a lot of foot people and the music royalty situation is completely fucked up, because I don’t think the money ends up with her.
I remember reading that Spotify pays out around 4k per day (~120k per month) for her streams but the majority of that payout goes to the rights holder and Allen gets pennies. I think Spotify is paying a reasonable amount (at least in my opinion but I’m far from an expert on the matter) and the music industry is the one screwing her over.
Per stream can be very misleading because if Apple pays double per stream but the song gets double the streams on Spotify the payout is exactly the same. There’s an argument to be made that if you got as many streams on Apple as you do on Spotify you’d make more money but let’s be real, if Apple got as many streams as Spotify their per stream price would also be closer to what Spotify pays. These companies aren’t paying extra out of kindness. Their per stream pricing is higher because they know they (on average) won’t get Spotify number of streams. They can undercut Spotify to make themselves look better while most likely paying out roughly as much (or maybe even less than) what Spotify pays out.
You know, I’m generally with you there, but Tidal recently lowered the price of its Hi-Fi tier to match apple music’s price while Spotify still hasn’t made good on their lossless promise.
I just don’t get the appeal of Spotify aside from sunk cost. The podcast spam is enough for me.
I’m not saying that’s wrong, because I don’t have the information, but I have repeatedly read on different news articles that Spotify pays peanuts: way less than that to big artists. I will have to check for updated and reliable sources.
They don’t pay as well as Apple and Tidal but they pay much better than YouTube
When you’re indy you don’t make money from streaming. When you’re actually popular you do, but the record company gets it. It’s like when hard partying rockstars used to all go broke. It’s because they made millions but the corporations took it all and made them pay back the recording and partying costs out of their meager earnings. Then if the band was bust the company would write off the expenses as a loss while still collecting from the artists’ share.
For Taylor Swift’s 1999 album, there was an article that showed Spotify had paid millions to the record company and Swift got about $200. That’s why she’s re-recording everything as “Taylor’s version.” So she can get the revenue.
The singer of Cracker showed his earnings from streaming the song Low one month and TouTube had way more views than any streamer and had paid pennies. Seriously it was like .32.
My last check from streaming was $12 and that was only split two ways.
Thank you, I didn’t know that. I know that record labels have been screwing artists for decades… but I didn’t know that Spotify was actually paying good money for the listens, it just doesn’t reach the artist.
In another thread someone said Spotify is paying out 17k per month for her streams. And that’s only Spotify. If she’s making more on OF, that means there are a lot of foot people and the music royalty situation is completely fucked up, because I don’t think the money ends up with her.
I remember reading that Spotify pays out around 4k per day (~120k per month) for her streams but the majority of that payout goes to the rights holder and Allen gets pennies. I think Spotify is paying a reasonable amount (at least in my opinion but I’m far from an expert on the matter) and the music industry is the one screwing her over.
Spotify pays artists less than any major streaming platform (Apple music, tidal, etc.)
Do they actually pay less or do they pay less per stream? Because those two things are not the same.
Good question. I’m speaking per stream, not sure overall.
Per stream can be very misleading because if Apple pays double per stream but the song gets double the streams on Spotify the payout is exactly the same. There’s an argument to be made that if you got as many streams on Apple as you do on Spotify you’d make more money but let’s be real, if Apple got as many streams as Spotify their per stream price would also be closer to what Spotify pays. These companies aren’t paying extra out of kindness. Their per stream pricing is higher because they know they (on average) won’t get Spotify number of streams. They can undercut Spotify to make themselves look better while most likely paying out roughly as much (or maybe even less than) what Spotify pays out.
You know, I’m generally with you there, but Tidal recently lowered the price of its Hi-Fi tier to match apple music’s price while Spotify still hasn’t made good on their lossless promise.
I just don’t get the appeal of Spotify aside from sunk cost. The podcast spam is enough for me.
Wow, that is a shitton of money. Yeah, it really sounds like the music industry is shit and broken like everything else.
I’m not saying that’s wrong, because I don’t have the information, but I have repeatedly read on different news articles that Spotify pays peanuts: way less than that to big artists. I will have to check for updated and reliable sources.
They don’t pay as well as Apple and Tidal but they pay much better than YouTube
When you’re indy you don’t make money from streaming. When you’re actually popular you do, but the record company gets it. It’s like when hard partying rockstars used to all go broke. It’s because they made millions but the corporations took it all and made them pay back the recording and partying costs out of their meager earnings. Then if the band was bust the company would write off the expenses as a loss while still collecting from the artists’ share.
For Taylor Swift’s 1999 album, there was an article that showed Spotify had paid millions to the record company and Swift got about $200. That’s why she’s re-recording everything as “Taylor’s version.” So she can get the revenue.
The singer of Cracker showed his earnings from streaming the song Low one month and TouTube had way more views than any streamer and had paid pennies. Seriously it was like .32.
My last check from streaming was $12 and that was only split two ways.
Others might pay more, but the point is, that Spotify pays so much more than what ends up with the artists.
Thank you, I didn’t know that. I know that record labels have been screwing artists for decades… but I didn’t know that Spotify was actually paying good money for the listens, it just doesn’t reach the artist.
There’s been years of anti Spotify propaganda. It’s not surprising that it sticks.