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As you busily stream your faves who are worldwide stars, you may not realize that when you stream some minor Indie artist it does not help them at all. They're basically getting nothing. Even your faves get a small percent of what their agency gets. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/03/music-streaming-major-labels-musicians-uk-government?fbclid=IwAR2Bqdn94cfeSPJw_PSdwJXmBLrtUmqsvRcAlASf4hBcCiVaa2Gp4dzJdqs
I understand that many of you stream to achieve metrics for your faves. But this participation in the system is not supporting musical artistry, it's supporting Spotify and major labels. Actually buying CDs definitely helps more (Indie artists will get paid a percent of that
purchase that is somewhat equivalent to the percent that goes to your fave K-pop group) (the entire group, not each member since they do have to split the earnings, and if the Indie artist is a solo, they don't split it 5 or 7 ways).
As someone married to a singer/musician it's really frustrating to see that he'll get a few cents for every dollar from a sale on itunes, but at least he gets a few cents.
I know you may like a hugely successful group's music more than anyone else, and that's just fine.
I know you may like a hugely successful group's music more than anyone else, and that's just fine.
But please don't fool yourself about what's happening to the music industry as streaming becomes increasingly how people consume music. Your fave is fine, but the artist who *could* become your fave in twenty years may never get their career off the ground.
And of course attending live shows for relatively unknown artists is still the best way to support them-- whether that live show is online and you're paying into a tip jar, or buying access, or if it's in person in a post-pandemic world.
Show up for live music!
Show up for live music!
And when you see a YouTube channel that showcases relatively unknown artists or one specific group, hit subscribe. They can't even start to earn a tiny amount of money until they hit a certain subscriber threshold (which keeps going up, BTW).
Also, if an artist has their own website and you can buy through that website they probably get a lot more money from that sale than if you buy through other sites. We used to have my husband's CDs on Amazon-- it was a huge hassle and he got less than half the sale price --
don't forget Amazon didn't pay for recording, musicians, mastering, studio time, instruments, physical CDs, etc. etc. Their only cost was putting it on the website--which they charged him an annual fee for
