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ARTISTS, WE NEED TO HAVE A TALK ABOUT THIS.
I keep seeing this shit on the TL, but I think there's a vast illiteracy about how streaming works. We need to understand how it works before we can change the system.
Please read & share. (1/n). https://twitter.com/akvmamusic/status/1296157743678545920
I keep seeing this shit on the TL, but I think there's a vast illiteracy about how streaming works. We need to understand how it works before we can change the system.
Please read & share. (1/n). https://twitter.com/akvmamusic/status/1296157743678545920
First, many artists don't know how they get paid. Music streaming royalties are not a set rate for many musicians; it is based on the receipts from income. This is temperamentally affected by region, subscription type, model, and other factors. In short: payouts vary.
Spotify takes 30% to pay for the service and payroll of their employees. The other 70% will be allocated proportionally to artists. Say Spotify makes $10. They will take $3 to pay for their shit, then allocate the other $7 proportionally by play.
We can change this model (and should). We can move to a more inclusive one called user-centric licensing, where allocation is done on a per-user basis. The distinction is that rather than being paid as a percentage of all streams, you are paid as a percentage of a user's streams.
The flaw with asking for $0.01/stream is that this will bankrupt streaming services very quickly. I've seen many people say "oh, well that wouldn't be so bad" - but it would be. These services are democratizing and globalizing access to music: that is a great thing.
Making services pay more would require them to charge more; this means less people would have access to the music. This would propagate piracy, but worse - it would effectively price some countries out of access to our music. i.e: India, China, Russia, etc.
I know OF artists who have disabled access to their music in some of these countries on streaming services. I don't know if I consider this to be xenophobic or racist, but it's deffo financial elitism. Also: I think restricting access to yourself is a toxic mindset.
But all of these things considered, I have seen this $0.01/stream movement drummed up by folks who are mostly in record contracts - and I've read your contracts and know you're giving up 50-80% of your royalties. You people are in a different world than us.
The linked http://change.org petition notes that producing a song costs something like $2,300, which is puzzling to me - I don't know of a single artist spending $2.3k ... and I would be hardpressed to tell you how they're spending it. That's kinda shocking.
I think a critical takeaway here is that:
a) nobody knows what the fuck they're talking about;
b) a lot of artists are stuck in shitty record contracts (their fault; poor discretion)
c) people are overspending to rent studios
d) musicians need to take a music biz class.
a) nobody knows what the fuck they're talking about;
b) a lot of artists are stuck in shitty record contracts (their fault; poor discretion)
c) people are overspending to rent studios
d) musicians need to take a music biz class.
Don't get me wrong, we want the same thing: musicians should be paid more ... but this fixation on streaming royalties is bizarre. Streaming is not killing the music industry, it is democratizing and globalizing it; this is a good thing.
We should expect more transparency from streaming services. In fact, we should encourage streaming services to publish comprehensive reports about royalty payouts from month to month for auditing. There is a lot of that 'pie' lost from fraud. It need be discussed.
However, I will reiterate: streaming is buy-and-large a great thing. The people who disagree are largely folks who are locked into shitty record contracts, already making lots of money. They feel entitled to their careers; they should not. Nobody owes them a thing.
I hope that we can dismiss this elitism and move towards a common goal of expecting greater transparency in the streaming space: comprehensive reports of payouts, mandating discounts and introductory pricing be matched to nominal costing, and decreasing fees and friction.
I think it is really fucking cool that anyone can do this shit now. Anyone can make music. Anyone can share their music with a truly global audience. Let's not restrict that progress that we have made, but let us make strides in advancing these important causes.
