whatever will the millionaires do???
Stealing from the artists? But that is already Spotifys job.
I usually buy the records of the artists I like. I stopped using spotify for this exact reason, it preys on artists and fattens the rich bastards on top
This. This is why I am in the “I still buy CDs” camp. DL the album and if I’m still listening to it a couple days later I buy the CD, assuming the artist still even releases on CD…
Even buying the cd only puts a few bucks at best in the artists pockets. 80%+ goes to the publisher/producer/marketing/etc.
If you want to support an artist go see them live and/or buy merch from them directly. Anything what is just supporting publishers.
Sure for major artists pulling in millions a year, but at that point fuck em. For indy and unsigned artists, directly buying their media goes basically straight to them and is usually the highest margin item they have. If they are a massive artist sure their merch has economy of scale setup and they rake in money through that but I don’t support massive wealth inequality so they can fuck right off.
Obviously it’s different for unsigned artists who have self published, thought that was pretty self explanatory since they don’t have a record label/publisher/etc that takes the bulk of the money.
And you can support wonderful, consumer-friendly businesses like TicketMaster at the same time!
Sneak into the show but buy merch?
At that point, just mail them a fucking check.
So do you want to support the artist or not?
Well technically it is the record labels’ jobs. I think most big artists don’t interact directly with Spotify but through a label that signed them when they were small and takes 90% of the income from their songs.
Exactly. When you see someone whingeing about how little they earned from x amount of streams, go look up what spotify pays per stream, do the maths, it never adds up.
It’s because they signed a shitty publishing / label deal. I’ve got plenty of music on spotify and tbh have earned more in royalties from streams than I ever did via labels in this day and age (though there was a ‘golden age’ where digital downloads paid very well, assuming the label manager wasn’t on the fiddle). Spotify could prob pay a little more per stream at this point though.
Spotify pays like 0.003 per stream the fuck are you talking about? Either you are racking up millions of plays or you are straight talking out your ass. Granted taking a shitty label deal is not something to promote, but don’t act like Spotify actually pays shit, because it does not…
Selling 20 albums at $10 would net around $200, getting 20 people to listen to your album on Spotify nets maybe 80 cents…
You don’t own songs on spotify, you merely license the temporary right to listen to them. Therefore the proper comparison is not album sales, it’s radio plays.
Now I don’t know the average rate for radio licensing, but I’m willing to bet big money that it’s absolutely nowhere near $200 for 20 people listening.
Maybe radio is not as cheap as spotify, maybe not, but famously spotify is not profitable so the labels are still to blame regardless.
How about unsigned artists?
They get fractions of a penny per play, you are better off streaming it once on SoundCloud for them then listening a hundred times on Spotify. All the dick riding here is from people who do not understand the business model of streaming services and how they steal all profit from those creators bringing content to their platform. Ad monetization does not fucking work it creates businesses with massive losses so data brokers can eventually scoop up the data from the ashes of the service and feed it to marketing departments at other companies for a fee, and no artists do not get a cent from those sales it’s a joke. Buy directly from the artist on band camp or donate via patreon if they have it.
Artists don’t generally make money from music sales unless they self publish. Spotify gets the music out there and heard so people discover bands and go see them in concert and buy merch, which is where bands make their money.
It’s crazy that it’s 2023 and people still don’t understand this.
exactly. It is crazy that people still think that if you don’t pay spotify it is the artists that loose money. Most of the subscription value goes to spotify and record labels themselves
yo true
Isnt that the Labels Job? Ive read that Spotify gets only around 30% and gives 70% to Labels. Which then pay artist pennys on the Dollar if even. 30% for All the backend Server stuff etc is fine. Same as gaming with steam as example
This thread is unnecessary bullying. If you don’t like his take, then downvote him and move on with your life. Posting his username and comment in another community/instance is just poor taste and makes you seem a bit like a crybaby.
What do you mean unnecessary?
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Or you could just post piracy-related things in a piracy-focused community. This isn’t Facebook, go post your drama there.
Modded Spotify seems like it would fit
That’s the most downvoted comment I’ve seen on Lemmy so far, cool.
LET’S FUCKING GOOO
As someone who’s bough several albums on bandcamp, I’m pretty sure I’ve given more money to actual artists than the average spoify user ever has through their subscription.
Doesn’t the production label make most of the money from sales anyways?and the artist makes more from live performances
That’s assuming the artist does live performances. Not all do.
I think the more accurate answer is “it depends.” It’s best to find out the best way to support your favorite artists. Some have their own site, some use Bandcamp, some use Apple Music, some want their followers to use Spotify (because maybe exposure there helps them more). There’s an artist I follow that says Spotify the best way to support her; I don’t understand how, but it’s not my place to question the first hand source about what helps them eat.
Either way, it’s not as cut and dry as “Spotify bad.”
I think that’s always been the case, even before streaming or home-taping “killed the music industry”.
just to be sure - are you referring to the musicians as millionaires or do you mean the streaming service ceos? just wanted to check because i know a few musicians and none of them are millionaires, seems like they are doing something wrong… 😐
Common pirate mentality: anyone who has something I want doesn’t deserve to have it.
My personal pirate mentality: Sharing is caring.
My mentality is pirate what you can’t afford
And I’m sure you are providing a home, shelter, and pay for every artist who chooses to share work rather than sell it.
Well, yes
I’m shocked we haven’t seen “it’s not stealing” 🤣
Yeah, all my musician friends must love keeping a low profile I guess
To be fair depends on what you listen to on spotify. If you listen to major mainstream names, well yeah. Millionaires. If youre listening to smaller bands then the compensation model of spotify is shit and you can probably give them more direct compensation by going to a concert, buying some merch, and maybe directly buying music from them.
Imagine feeling good because you pay for spotify. If you want your favorite artists to have money buy tickets and merch.
But avoid Ticketmaster.
Also Eventim if you are in germany - good luck
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how
Exactly
Better than no money at all tbh.
Unless they have a 360 deal, which most new artists are forced into.
How does one actually ensure the artist gets the majority of sales, when the labels now take a cut even of merch at live shows? :(
Can artists set up a direct donation page? I’d rather use that if possible.
…a 360 deal
I’ve not heard of this, could you explain what it is?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/360_deal
It’s a music deal that lets the labels take a cut of everything, including revenue streams artists used to have to themselves – shows, sponsorship deals, merchandising.
It used to be that if you bought, for example, a concert t-shirt or stickers or whatever (unsure if CDs/tapes were ever exempt) at the live performance that the artist got all or most of that. Artists could also control their own merchandising and aspects of their persona outside of the studio… personal appearances etc. but now the record labels ‘own’ them more completely. A terrible turn in general, and most labels demand a ‘360 deal or nothing’ to new artists.
“Merch” used to be the way artists made a lot of their income while on tour, since they didn’t make nearly as much from their album sales from an already unfair record-deal system; now they can’t even catch a fair break on tour.
Huge acts can negotiate better deals; the rest are stuck with unfair terms.
Also some labels would do a deal where if you buy an album through the usual retailers, the label takes a cut. But, they sell the albums to the artist at cost, and they can then sell them for full profit. So if you buy a CD through the artist’s web site, they make a lot more than if you buy it through a retailer.
Considering Vinyl actually has a higher market share than CDs, I’m guessing the same rules would apply?
I saw Sleep Token. Their merch line lasted a lot longer than the show did. They were slinging $60 posters. Average purchase was probably $200.
They probably banked over 100k at the merch table that evening.
I pay for Spotify because I enjoy the recommendation and playlist system. Looking at how the revenue is distributed to the artist, paying for Spotify is equivalent to piracy
Hasn’t Spotify been taking away features now too? I find it so fucking bizarre that people pay to get less.
My main genre i listen to is hip hop and there is almost no good merch to buy. I live in canada and listen to many underground artists who doesn’t come to canada to perform. I think buying digital or physical music is the best option
You should still support services that you use though. Pirate music if you want, but if you use Spotify you should pay for it.
Y’all get so pissy when people judge you for stealing content. Then you start attacking this user? Even putting up your own post to bully them?
Definitely the behavior of adults and not 14 year olds.
If there’s anything one should notice in life, it’s that yes, that is how grown adult humans act.
They’re all just entitled spoiled brats. Their kids are unironically more mature than they are.
Have friend. Is artist. Headline act in front of +40K. Goes all over world doing festivals and stuff. Steals music. Encourages me to steal music. Laughs when I steal his music
That friend’s name? Albert Einstein.
You Kevin Malone?
Most artists are not millionaires.
I’m sure Spotify is paying the artists very fairly and totally not robbing them of their labour.
It’s actually the lables that are ripping off the artists.
Spotify isn’t profitable. They’re constantly losing money
It’s actually the lables that are ripping off the artists.
As is tradition.
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The core service which is music streaming will never be able to make spotify profitable. The problem which podcast is that they are badly integrated in spotify, it should be a seperate app instead
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Not all artists have labels, there are a lot of independents and getting 0.001 cents per play from Spotify is basically robbery compared to what sites like SoundCloud will pay per stream…
I’d like sources for these claims. What I’ve found online as average:
Soundcloud 0.0025 - 0.004$ per stream
Spotify 0.003 - 0.005 per stream
Streaming services will never be able to able to pay artists fairely. We should return to buying music
Largely this is probably true. One large benefit for the consumer with streaming music over buying it is actually that it is cheaper. Significantly cheaper if you listen to a bunch of different things. So if everyone has moved to a method of listening to music that costs less then there has to be less money available to artists (all else being equal).
Even if 100% of streaming services’ revenue went to artists it could still be less money.
The problem isn’t Spotify itself, it’s the business model of streaming being way too cheap.
If I play one song, from one artist, once a day, for a year, the artist earns about $2 from me. BFD lol
it gets more interesting if you calculate how much of the percentage of a user’s subscription goes to spotify, how much goes to labels and how much ends up in the artists themselves.
Well, luckily for them they can have more than one listener
If I buy one song from one artist off bandcamp the artist earns about $1 from me, which I can then listen to thousands of times without them seeing another cent.
Then go buy the cd directly. Or donate.
Y’all try to pretend like you are pissed where their money goes but then choose to ignore those options.
It’s about you all just not wanting to pay, don’t try and make it assume noble bullshit.
It’s bet none of you have donated directly to creators and if you have it’s less than $300 life time total.
Oh no I’ll gladly buy merch from the artists themselves if I could afford to
Check out our new hoodie! Only $100.
I mean I think that could be a fair price, clothes can be pretty expensive to make and you also have to live off of selling them. Of course I am in no position to buy them at that price but I’m a broke student.
$100 USD for a hoodie is dumb expensive. I refuse to pay more than $50 for a hoodie, and even then it better be a high quality hoodie. Better make me sweat in 40 degree weather.
The point of a 100 dollar merch hoodie isn’t that you get a 100 dollars worth of hoodie. It’s that you support the artist. A less expensive hoodie means less for the artists. That’s kinda the point of merch…
Im literally paying for Apple Music
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It is important to know that artists make close to nothing on Spotify. By pirating Spotify you hurt big tech (and even not really, it’s not like they have a finite amount of money) and not the artists. Sending an artist $5 on Ko-Fi to an artist you enjoy will absolve you of all your music piracy sins for the rest of your life.
And everyone blames spotify for this and uses metrics about how much per listen they pay and forgetting we used to listen to songs thousands of times on CDs we paid $10 for.
Artists make close to nothing on spotify, but they also made jack all before spotify. Most of the money you pay goes to labels.
Going to a show is a lot closer to putting money in an artist’s pocket, that’s how they make most of their money.
I worked for a few labels back in the day. Bands could make money depending on if they’re discerning with who they signed with. Some indie labels split profits down the middle after costs are recouped
Problem is each and every revenue stream is a fraction of what it used to be
Also important to know that Spotify is a net positive for artists, even though they pay not much. The music industry is one of the very few where being “paid in exposure” actually is a valid thing. Spotify gets your music out there in front of tens/hundreds of millions of people that would usually never ever hear your music, and you’ll convert some of them to fans that will see you live in shows and buy merch. Artists make no money on cd sales either, that all goes to the labels/publishers/producers/etc.
Daniel Ek (Spotify CEO) is 3x richer than Paul McCartney. If that doesn’t bun you out enough, he uses his fortune to invest in sketchy AI for military applications., plus you know… Joe Rogan and all that shit
Fuck that guy in the face
This is not true. Artists who don’t make much money on spotify are either under very poor terms with their label / publisher, or simply aren’t generating many streams.
For example, in my main genre trance, upper-B to lower-A artists can expect to make ~600 euros per release, minimum if it’s on a decent label, assuming it’s promoted properly and reaches the right playlists. It takes me 3-4 days to finish a track (to a high standard). That’s a pretty good return on investment imo.
Obv the caveat is that if you don’t do very well with promo, or are on a label that doesn’t understand how to leverage playlists, then yeah you’re not going to make much.
Spotify replacing songs in my library without warning basically radicalized me to start using modded apps and buy my favorite artists on bandcamp
Make sure you’ve got everything off of Bandcamp cos it’s going to enshittify rapidly after the sale.
I was honestly surprised it held out as long as it did
Is there another alternative? Bandcamp is the only similar website that a lot of artists I enjoy use.
I’m moving back to buy physical media… But it’s sad that isn’t feasible to buy the entire library that I have on platforms. That would be an whole life effort decades ago, now it’s even harder since the availability for physical media decrease so much.
Direct donations maybe?
Ah yes all those millionaire artists. Poor rich artists. Everyone knows all artists are rich. Right?
Did you… read the comment? It wasn’t about the streaming platform owners.
I’ll typically buy albums from artists that I’m pretty certain aren’t mega wealthy, and actually I’ve just been paying less attention to the ones who are. If I check them out on YouTube and they have a Vevo logo on the vid that’s a easy way to know they don’t need my money at all.
Vevo channel is cheaper than you think. You can submit a music video to Vevo for $500 (last time I checked), and if it gets rejected you’ll get a refund.
You know, as much as I’m fine with setting sail to find video content that’s hidden behind streaming subscriptions, I’m actually ok with paying £15 a month for Apple Music / Spotify, et al…
I mean, I’d say there’s 99% similarity between the libraries of the big two streamers, so it’s not like you have to sub to both to get all the music you want. I can listen to the same hardcore bands across most of them, and that’s fine. The problem I have is that there’s a bunch of shows on Netflix, another bunch on D+, more on Prime, and so on, and so on. So we’re made to feel that, in order to keep up with cultural discourse, we have to spend out £70+ a month on half a dozen different services.
And nah, fuck that.
All that said, I do download some music, because I want FLACs to convert to 320 aac so I can load on to the iPod I like to use.
