Music streaming services have revolutionized the way we listen to music. Platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal offer vast libraries of songs at our fingertips, allowing us to discover, share, and enjoy music like never before. However, beneath the surface of this convenience lies a troubling reality: the compensation for artists is dismally low. This blog post explores the dual nature of music streaming services, highlighting the convenience they provide to listeners and the financial struggles they impose on musicians.
The Harsh Reality for Artists
While music streaming services offer immense benefits to listeners, the story is starkly different for artists. The compensation model is based on a per-stream payout system, which often results in meager earnings for musicians. Here are some of the key issues:
Low Per-Stream Payouts: On average, streaming services pay between $0.003 and $0.005 cents per stream. This is exstremelly low. This means that an artist needs millions of streams just to earn a modest income. For most independent musicians, reaching these numbers is a significant challenge.
If you look at artists like "The Weekend" One of his songs has 949, 291, 296 plays (so far) on Spotify. If he gets as low as 0.003 cents per stream It means he gets 2,847,659.868. This is if it was without his record company taking a good share.
This is just a rough estimate. Forgive me if this is not correct.
However I am an underground, unsigned artist. My song Metaphors has had over 106,000 streams on Spotify. Times that by 0.003 it only equates to just $318 dollars.
Revenue Distribution: The revenue generated by streaming services is typically divided among the platform, record labels, publishers, and the artists themselves. After all these cuts, the portion that actually reaches the artist is minimal. In many cases, record labels take a substantial share, leaving artists with an even smaller fraction. Â
Sustainability: The low payouts make it difficult for musicians to sustain their careers solely through streaming income. Many artists have to rely on other revenue streams such as live performances, merchandise sales, and crowdfunding to make ends meet. The COVID-19 pandemic, which brought live performances to a halt, highlighted the precariousness of relying on streaming revenue.
My last payout from my distributor over the past few years was only 25 dollars.
Some of the artists I know who have the same musical status as me get even less. This is from multiple streaming services.
Inequitable Distribution: The current model tends to favor established artists with large followings. Independent and emerging musicians, who are less likely to amass millions of streams, find it particularly hard to generate significant income from these platforms. This inequity perpetuates the dominance of big-name artists and makes it harder for new talent to break through.
Other Concerns: I have seen so many artists get penalised for things they didn't do on Spotify. They have had their music removed, getting accused for paying for bots to provide their plays. Artists being so appauled by the changes that some of them, choose to pull their music from the platform, or not even make their next release at all. I am persoanlly upset about these changes myself. It is only a matter of time before the rest follow suit worldwide.
Conclusion: What can we do?
As consumers, we have a role to play in advocating for fairer compensation models and supporting musicians through various means. What we can do is encourage you to buy the music, buy the merch, Go to the shows wether online or at a venue. We also appreciate it if you shared our music on your socials, or via word of mouth. By doing so, we can help ensure that the vibrant and diverse world of music continues to thrive, benefiting both listeners and musicians alike. You can still enjoy the music AND pay the artists 100 percent of the royalties.
So....How do you feel about streaming services now?
Would you still stream the music knowing the damage being caused to artists?!
Or
Will you buy the music knowing that you are properly helping an artist put more than just food on their table?!
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