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Streaming Music is Ripping You Off

watchnerd

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"If you subscribe to a subscription music service such as Spotify or Apple Music you probably pay $10 a month. And if you are like most people, you probably do so believing your money goes to the artists you listen to. Unfortunately, you are wrong.

The reality is only some of your money is paid to the artists you listen to. The rest of your money (and it’s probably most of your money) goes somewhere else. That “somewhere else” is decided by a small group of subscribers who have gained control over your money thanks to a mathematical flaw in how artist royalties are calculated. This flaw cheats real artists with real fans, rewards fake artists with no fans, and perhaps worst of all communicates to most streaming music subscribers a simple, awful, message: Your choices don’t count, and you don’t matter."

https://medium.com/cuepoint/streaming-music-is-ripping-you-off-61dc501e7f94
 

svart-hvitt

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This (being fair to artists) may be something streaming companies should take seriously. Doing business in a responsible way could be regarded as a means to get a competitive edge.

«The nice streaming company».

Sounds nice (sic!).

Right?
 

andreasmaaan

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I think there are major issues with the current models in terms of artist royalties, but I'm not sure this particular one is the heart of the problem.

What would the alternative be? That the first stream from a particular user results in a higher royalty, while all subsequent streams from that user result in a lower one? What would the basis of this be? That artists deserve to be paid more for a new listener than an old fan? Seems strange to me.

The bigger problem is that major labels - who used to have to work relatively hard to give artists a platform - are becoming increasingly irrelevant in an age in which anybody can record, mix, master and publish music with very low overheads (both in terms of recording and physical distribution). Yet these labels still seem to have a stranglehold on the supply chain, extracting as high a proportion of the (ever-diminishing) pie, while providing less and less value.

It will be interesting to see if the labels* survive the transition to an all-streaming economy. My take on it is that the streaming services will (and probably should) ultimately take the major labels' place. That will cut out one middleman and replace it with another. But there's no room ultimately for two IMHO.

*There should still remain a place for niche smaller labels, especially those releasing on physical formats. And for larger firms that provide label-like services, i.e. recording, publicity, bookings, etc - without accruing ownership rights over the recorded material.
 
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watchnerd

watchnerd

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I think there are major issues with the current models in terms of artist royalties, but I'm not sure this particular one is the heart of the problem.

What would the alternative be? That the first stream from a particular user results in a higher royalty, while all subsequent streams from that user result in a lower one? What would the basis of this be? That artists deserve to be paid more for a new listener than an old fan? Seems strange to me.

The bigger problem is that major labels - who used to have to work relatively hard to give artists a platform - are becoming increasingly irrelevant in an age in which anybody can record, mix, master and publish music with very low overheads (both in terms of recording and physical distribution). Yet these labels still seem to have a stranglehold on the supply chain, extracting as high a proportion of the (ever-diminishing) pie, while providing less and less value.

It will be interesting to see if the labels* survive the transition to an all-streaming economy. My take on it is that the streaming services will (and probably should) ultimately take the major labels' place. That will cut out one middleman and replace it with another. But there's no room ultimately for two IMHO.

*There should still remain a place for niche smaller labels, especially those releasing on physical formats. And for larger firms that provide label-like services, i.e. recording, publicity, bookings, etc - without accruing ownership rights over the recorded material.
This (being fair to artists) may be something streaming companies should take seriously. Doing business in a responsible way could be regarded as a means to get a competitive edge.

«The nice streaming company».

Sounds nice (sic!).

Right?

I'm not sure how going direct or having a 'nicer' company solves the click fraud problem the article talks about.
 

svart-hvitt

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I'm not sure how going direct or having a 'nicer' company solves the click fraud problem the article talks about.

People talk about AI, artificial intelligence. I am not one of the big AI believers, but I think streaming is well suited for an algorithm that is both transparent, «fair» and «intelligent».
 

NorthSky

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That's a considerate article. Fairness we all want, music artists included.
Thanks for posting it.
 

Darwin

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This was a very poorly done, sensationalized, and link bait article.
It is very well known that not a lot of the money goes to artists from streaming companies. Who doesn't already know that?
There have been tons of articles about it for years. The same thing happened with record companies.
Secondly they act as if all streaming companies use the exact same calculations which is all wrong and is very easy to find out if you are reading real news not link bait web sites like Medium.
Google it.
For example this article;
https://9to5mac.com/2017/03/30/music-streaming-artist-payout-rates/

"The latest RIAA report shares positive news as far as Apple is concerned. In terms of payments to music creators per 1,000 streams, Apple comes out well ahead of Spotify and YouTube. Apple pays between $12 and $15 per 1,000 streams, whereas Spotify pays around $7 per 1,000 streams, and YouTube pays around $1. The RIAA notes that what’s really hindering the music industry from growth is the low payouts from services like YouTube, which uses a “legal loophole” to pay such a low rate."
 

NorthSky

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The higher the recorded music quality the more the artist gets.
If you buy the latest remastering pressings the artists should get a bigger chunk.

* Go see your favorite artists live and buy their CDs on the spot.
 

Thomas savage

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I think there are major issues with the current models in terms of artist royalties, but I'm not sure this particular one is the heart of the problem.

What would the alternative be? That the first stream from a particular user results in a higher royalty, while all subsequent streams from that user result in a lower one? What would the basis of this be? That artists deserve to be paid more for a new listener than an old fan? Seems strange to me.

The bigger problem is that major labels - who used to have to work relatively hard to give artists a platform - are becoming increasingly irrelevant in an age in which anybody can record, mix, master and publish music with very low overheads (both in terms of recording and physical distribution). Yet these labels still seem to have a stranglehold on the supply chain, extracting as high a proportion of the (ever-diminishing) pie, while providing less and less value.

It will be interesting to see if the labels* survive the transition to an all-streaming economy. My take on it is that the streaming services will (and probably should) ultimately take the major labels' place. That will cut out one middleman and replace it with another. But there's no room ultimately for two IMHO.

*There should still remain a place for niche smaller labels, especially those releasing on physical formats. And for larger firms that provide label-like services, i.e. recording, publicity, bookings, etc - without accruing ownership rights over the recorded material.
I don’t think we will see the role of ‘lables’ disappear , in the increasingly saturated market ( as you point out through advances in technology the ability to produce music ready for distribution has never been so attainable and thusly common) artists will need ‘ promoters ‘ . Music lables can offer more than just promotion but ultimately while thier role may change or continue to evolve I don’t see it disappearing.

I’d like to see artists get a bigger share of the pie but also it would great to have more transparency with maybe labelling on the media saying what as a % the artists gets, raise awareness and give consumers the chance to chose the most rewarding outlets.
 

NorthSky

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restorer-john

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The only streaming music I listen to is this:

austinville rock pool (Small).jpeg


Just up the road from us. Perfect, uncompressed audio. Free to listen. No cell phone reception here either- it drops out about 5km before.

leaf.jpeg


dragonfly.jpeg


Beautiful streaming quality, we take the boys up and they swim and play in natural rock slides. Noise floor is significant from the cicadas, birds and the constant water.
 

NorthSky

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NorthSky

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