Spotify to launch 'Hi-Fi' CD Quality Tier.

[sarumbear]

That's really shocking, specially since the average person no longer sits down and does nothing except listening to music.

Right now the gaming industry has exceeded both the film and the music industry combined, it's difficult to think music is experiencing a 'Golden era' in the entertainment sphere.

Practically every game and film has music for which musicians are paid. If they are doing well that means some musicians are also doing well. Music is not only what we consume on records, and streaming.

 

[Zensō]

You are all missing the point. Music revenue is increasing. It is now higher than during the golden years of the 90s. Someone is being paid. It is not that labels and streamers all vacuuming the revenue into their coffers is it? The simple fact is there are many, many more artists out there and per artist earnings are low. However, this has always been the same, there is always a pyramid effect when it comes to revenue distribution among artists. Nothing has changed. Adel was at the top a few years ago, then came Ed Sheeran and now it is Bad Bunny, an artist that I have no idea about has eclipsed the ENTIRE OUTPUT of every major label ref

The music has changed. We may have not agree but that is a reality. Most of the "titans" of that golden age are no longer are in the charts, only their back catalogue produces money and they had signed that off or sold it. The only genres that is selling are Country, Pop & Rap. Neither are known for their audio quality nor have a place in the audiophile record collections.

View attachment 220600

You are missing the point in that the labels are making money hand over fist while artists are taking the smallest portion of the pie ever. The current situation is particularly bad for small artists. The labels are the winners here, not artists.

 

[sarumbear]

You are missing the point in that the labels are making money hand over fist while artists are taking the smallest portion of the pie ever. The current situation is particularly bad for small artists. The labels are the winners here, not artists.

What has changed? Labels always made money hand over fist. Are you telling us that labels have decreased the percentage of artist payments dramatically so that artists are starved? Do you have proof of this? Or do you assume? I see current contracts which have ballpark same percentage compare to contracts from 80s and 90s.

There are simply too many artists and only a very few can earn a living from their music. This has always been the same. Nothing has changed other than people paying attention to it.

The chart topper this week globally is an artist called Bizarrp. His most streamed song this week on Spotify has 53m streams. His top three streamed songs are: 197m, 126m & 113m, totalling 436m. Whereas, Ed Sherian's numbers are in the BILLIONS: 3.2b, 2.1b & 1.2b. His top three songs streamed 15 times more than the current chart topper. Can you see the pyramid's scale?

 

[Zensō]

What has changed? Labels always made money hand over fist. Are you telling us that labels have decreased the percentage of artist payments dramatically so that artists are starved? Do you have proof of this? Or do you assume? I see current contracts which have ballpark same percentage compare to contracts from 80s and 90s.

There are simply too many artists and only a very few can earn a living from their music. This has always been the same. Nothing has changed other than people paying attention to it.

The chart topper this week globally is an artist called Bizarrp. His most streamed song this week on Spotify has 53m streams. His top three streamed songs are: 197m, 126m & 113m, totalling 436m. Whereas, Ed Sherian's numbers are in the BILLIONS: 3.2b, 2.1b & 1.2b. His top three songs streamed 15 times more than the current chart topper. Can you see the pyramid's scale?

If you dig into the numbers you’ll find that small artists (however you want to define that) are taking a much smaller piece of the pie than they have historically. This structural change in the way royalties are paid out took place when streaming became the dominant delivery method. I don’t see what is so hard to understand, this fact is common knowledge within the music industry.

 

[sarumbear]

If you dig into the numbers you’ll find that small artists (however you want to define that) are taking a much smaller piece of the pie than they have historically. This structural change in the way royalties are paid out took place when streaming became the dominant delivery method. I don’t see what is so hard to understand, this fact is common knowledge within the music industry.

You are mistaken. I am still in the media industry. I have direct access to data and have close friends who manage artists and labels.

The reason why small artists earn proportionally less is because of (or lack of) concert tickets and merchandising. Those are up to 70% of a signed artist's income. Small time artists does not have that income. However, this is changing with TikTok. Now anyone can earn big bucks if they have a big follower there. This is very new, a couple of years old if that.

There is no major artist that have a meaningful percentage of their income from disk sales -- full-stop. Times have changed. Even Adele has to go on tour as her streaming numbers are less than a third of what was.

If you want to know what is the state of the music industry read what my friend says and/or subscribe to his newsletter.

 

[Zensō]

You are mistaken. I am still in the media industry. I have direct access to data and have close friends who manage artists and labels.

The reason why small artists earn proportionally less is because of (or lack of) concert tickets and merchandising. Those are up to 70% of a signed artist's income. Small time artists does not have that income. However, this is changing with TikTok. Now anyone can earn big bucks if they have a big follower there. This is very new, a couple of years old if that.

There is no major artist that have a meaningful percentage of their income from disk sales -- full-stop. Times have changed. Even Adele has to go on tour as her streaming numbers are less than a third of what was.

If you want to know what is the state of the music industry read what my friend says and/or subscribe to his newsletter.

Now we’re talking about disc sales and touring revenue? I thought we were discussing specifically royalties from streaming.

I’m done, there’s no need to respond.

 

[sarumbear]

Now we’re talking about disc sales and touring revenue? I thought we were discussing specifically royalties from streaming.

I’m done, there’s no need to respond.

It’s always the same. When someone is presented with data that refutes their beliefs they are “done”. They cannot argued against data. They do not offer opposing data that supports their case. Instead, all they want is to discuss hearsay & beliefs that are not supported with facts, I.e. data.

Even on a forum that has science in the name, not much changes.

 

[Zensō]

It’s always the same. When someone is presented with data that refutes their beliefs they are “done”. They cannot argued against data. They do not offer opposing data that supports their case. Instead, all they want is to discuss hearsay & beliefs that are not supported with facts, I.e. data.

Even on a forum that has science in the name, not much changes.

And there are those who believe they have all the answers and use appeals to authority to bolster their positions. You’re right, not much changes.

 

[sarumbear]

And there are those who believe they have all the answers and use appeals to authority to bolster their positions. You’re right, not much changes.

Submit data that proves your beliefs and we will see. Otherwise, you are just wittering.

 

[Timcognito]

Streaming Royalties and the Starving Artist: How Musicians Make Money - Reviews.com

Using this guide you can understand Streaming Royalties and the Starving Artist: How Musicians Make Money

www.reviews.com

 

[sarumbear]

Streaming Royalties and the Starving Artist: How Musicians Make Money - Reviews.com

Using this guide you can understand Streaming Royalties and the Starving Artist: How Musicians Make Money

www.reviews.com

Thank you for this.

One T-shirt is the equivalent to 6,500 streams on Spotify. 76% of all music in 2019 is streamed and not bought physically or digitally. Band merchandise is the most direct way of supporting an artist.

 

[escape2]

Band merchandise is the most direct way of supporting an artist.

Sad, isn't it?

 

[Emlin]

Sad, isn't it?

Now I know why Amir started his clothing emporium...

 

[sarumbear]

Sad, isn't it?

You may be only hearing it now but music industry have relied on merchandising from the beginning of pop music as we know it. Nothing has changed since early 60s.

Seltaeb - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[sarumbear]

This week CMA, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority published their findings. You may remember, they held hearings to find out if streaming is hurting artist income. And now they say there's not going to be a market investigation. The study that was initiated six months ago will be completed, but as for the heinous streaming payouts small labels and players themselves have been complaining about:

There has been a huge increase in the number of artists sharing their music and a vast back catalogue made available via streaming. This, coupled with the fact that there is only a finite amount of music a consumer can listen to and a relatively fixed pot of revenue from streaming, inevitably reduces the amount that most artists can earn, even with increased royalty rates.

But it gets even worse for the naysayers:

While the majors’ profits have been increasing since the lows of piracy, the current evidence does not suggest that market concentration is allowing the majors to make sustained and substantial excess profits.

And, it puts a stake in the heart of the publishing complaint, saying publishing revenues (what artists earn) have gone from 8% in 2007 to 15% today.

Naturally, many like @acbarn in this thread will still say streaming is bad for musicians, buy CDs, etc., etc. They have beliefs, they do not care about facts and figures.

 

[sarumbear]

Here is an analysis of the streaming services. Spotify haters will not like the fact that user curated playlists I.e. where people decide what to listen to is by far the largest on Spotify.

Some standout points. Spotify has a much higher percentage of user-curated streams, with its three rivals indexing much higher on non-playlist streams. Amazon Music has a lot more streams coming from its stations/radio features than the other streaming services.

YouTube Music has a much bigger chunk of algotorial streams than the other three, while editorial takes a slightly bigger share of streams on Apple and Amazon’s services than on Spotify or YouTube Music.

What's driving streams on Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music and Amazon Music? - Music Ally

A fascinating question, eh? And thanks to this morning's update report from UK competition regulator the CMA, we now have some answers.

musically.com

 

[spartaman64]

Here is an analysis of the streaming services. Spotify haters will not like the fact that user curated playlists I.e. where people decide what to listen to is by far the largest on Spotify.

What's driving streams on Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music and Amazon Music? - Music Ally

A fascinating question, eh? And thanks to this morning's update report from UK competition regulator the CMA, we now have some answers.

musically.com

is this a good thing though? i found that i skip like 50% of spotify's recommended songs and add maybe like 10% of them and for me amazon hd is even worse. but youtube music does a good job and i at least listen to like 80% of their recommendations and add like 20-30%. though i guess it has resulted in my liked songs playlist on youtube music to get a bit out of hand lol.

 

[sarumbear]

is this a good thing though? i found that i skip like 50% of spotify's recommended songs and add maybe like 10% of them and for me amazon hd is even worse. but youtube music does a good job and i at least listen to like 80% of their recommendations and add like 20-30%. though i guess it has resulted in my liked songs playlist on youtube music to get a bit out of hand lol.

Please read again. The figure is not about recommended music. It is about music the listener have chosen! You totally misunderstood the data.

 

[Sashoir]

My comment is about the misleading belief that buying CDs & downloading will help the artist more. Streaming is by far the best way to help artists paid more.

At least as of ~ 5 years ago, live and merch would generally bring in the bulk of the income to most performing artists (obviously it was different for session musicians, composers, & cetera) for the kinds of artists able to fill a ~500 pax to ~5k pax venues. At the very top, the marquee performers often have (or had) so-called 360-deals, whereby someone would pay the performer a fixed fee up front in exchange for all their revenues (Madonna or Foo-Fighters type level*). At the next level down (not multiple stadium sell-outs in the same city, but maybe one arena or multiple 5-10k rooms), recorded music (including "synch", which is where your song gets played in a film or a video game or an advert or what have you) would be the bulk of the performer's income (but live was still important not just for promoting the recorded stuff, but because comparatively more of the end-customer's money ended up with the performer**). Then below that, live and merch would make up the largest income source. This is for rock and pop: I don't know about the economics of, say, hip-hop.

At any event the breakdown of revenue streams for the industry, even recorded doesn't necessarily hold the same proportions of income to the artists.

*Pretty sure Madonna did a 360 deal with Live nation, no idea about Foo-Fighters; just examples of the size of the act where those deals were relevant.

**This is with the big assumption of a non-dodgy promoter. Promoter (and manager) accounting was often like the legendary "Hollywood accounting", because many of the agreements had promoters and managers being paid on gross door, but the artists being paid on net (after costs), so the promoter might, e.g. get the p.a. and lighting for x, but charge 1.5x as a cost.

 

[Sashoir]

You are mistaken. I am still in the media industry. I have direct access to data and have close friends who manage artists and labels.

The reason why small artists earn proportionally less is because of (or lack of) concert tickets and merchandising. Those are up to 70% of a signed artist's income. Small time artists does not have that income. However, this is changing with TikTok. Now anyone can earn big bucks if they have a big follower there. This is very new, a couple of years old if that.

There is no major artist that have a meaningful percentage of their income from disk sales -- full-stop. Times have changed. Even Adele has to go on tour as her streaming numbers are less than a third of what was.

If you want to know what is the state of the music industry read what my friend says and/or subscribe to his newsletter.

I didn't see this comment when I made my earlier one: apologies.