What will persuade them? You have an amazing thing – it just needs to be fairer#TimsTwitterListeningParty. Us small guys are never going to win a battle against the likes of Spotify. ‘Spotify should pay artists more’ is a good rallying call, but it’s not a solution until you address the question of ‘how?’ That’s a discussion based around several more questions, which we’ve presented below. Spotify for Artists data has added exponential value to our engagement strategies and has guided us to know what we should double down on. Get Spotify Open Spotify You look like someone who appreciates good music. If one streaming service can’t get a single-country recordings-only trial off the ground, what hope is there for global, industry-wide adoption any time soon? It should pay them better, its 2019 figure for Spotify was $0.00348 per stream, sparked fury among the US publishing community, when asked about it last week during Spotify’s latest quarterly earnings call, announced its desire to run a pilot by early 2020, Bandcamp’s recent revenue-share-waiving sales days, Sign up for Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter, The Knowledge, https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Let-Artists-filter-followers-by-Region-to-send-concert/idi-p/4941023. Still, the fact that the 30% cut of download sales taken by Apple’s iTunes Store in the downloads era wasn’t that controversial suggests that Spotify’s rev-share may not be the big problem here. Spotify, like the music industry, is betting big on worldwide consumer behaviour catching up with Scandinavia. Spotify is like the mega-corporatized version that, technology-wise, wants to monopolize. Streaming royalties aren’t a single can of worms: they’re a mega chain of WormCanMart supermarkets having an annual worm-can opening festival. What it is not is investing into the music creation process it profits off of. Spotify doesn’t pay out $0.00348 per stream, so it can’t suddenly decide to triple that to $0.01044. You can use the Spotify artist app to really give you a step up on other bands. Still, the body of experience and ideas for how artists can build sustainable careers for themselves in the streaming era is growing, and while some of it comes from friendly partners trying to synthesise and share that knowledge (plug: Music Ally is one of them) much of it comes from artists being as creative with technology and business as they are with their music. In the US, the Copyright Royalties Board sets the percentage that on-demand streaming services pay out in mechanical royalties to publishers (and thus songwriters), and those were due to rise from 10.5% of a service’s revenues to 15.1% by 2022. But could the company up its payout rate from 65%? You can follow artists, which helps the recommendation system, but it's half-baked and is of limited use. i buy songs, upload them to spotify and use some strategies to get streams (legally) on my songs. Spotify prefers a combination of aggressive discount promotions of the three-months-for-a-dollar variety, plus – and it’s very keen on this argument – the cumulative effect of all its clever features (see: that R&D budget) that means the longer people are on Spotify, the more likely they are to pay. How many artists would be comfortable with audio-streaming giants playing a dominant role in their direct-from-fan revenues? Spotify is the lightning rod for this unrest, partly because it’s the biggest subscription service and the one most closely identified with the emergence of the music-streaming model; partly because memories are still fresh of it going public (current market cap: $27bn); and partly because its numbers (users, revenues, losses etc) are published every quarter. Spotify, along with Amazon, Google and Pandora, appealed against those new rates, which sparked fury among the US publishing community, which sees it as evidence that Spotify will fight any attempt to get it to pay out a higher percentage of its revenues as royalties. This is the key question to focus on: how Spotify can increase the size of its royalties pool. For my own part, I am constantly discovering music online (old and new) that I have never heard before. So while revenue is an important metric, it’s not a proxy for the health of the industry. Other tensions are more… intractable. Get access to Spotify for Artists. That’s 229 million more than were doing it at the end of 2016. In some parts of the world, the percentages aren’t entirely within its control. Not to mention the challenges of providing the expected content and access, and/or navigating the ‘asking for money’ requirements of tips-economy success? I have tried a few and they all have good and bad points, but for now I have ditched Spotify and I am paying a family subscription for Tidal. Spotify for Artists has made a huge difference in the way we do business. Whether you’re a bigger artist or just developing, Spotify for Artists helps you find your fans and market better to them. It should pay them better‘. Why not 80% or even a Bandcamp-style 90%? This, plus the #BrokenRecord campaign being built by fellow British musician Tom Gray (of Gomez, but also the boards of PRS for Music and the Ivors Academy) show that for all the positive industry figures, many musicians still see a big problem with streaming, but also potential to solve it. Whether you’re an established artist or new to the game, Spotify for Artists is the only way to pitch new songs to editors of some of the world’s most followed playlists. Subscription Services Pay Higher Rates Than Online Video, Online Radio, & Terrestrial Radio. Give me a break,” he said. It’s been happening naturally, of course, as Spotify’s revenues have grown every year, but for the purposes of this debate, we’re talking about other ways to increase it. Spotify … The calculations required are complicated, but perfectly manageable for streaming services. Why would labels give that up? Let’s focus on something simple then: the streaming royalties pool will grow faster if more people start paying for subscriptions, rather than listening for free. Some of these issues are hard to solve retrospectively without expensive lawyers – if you have a terrible label deal, your streaming royalties will be terrible – but are easier to swerve now and in the future. In many ways, playlisting is the new radio. Zooming out: the IFPI says there were 341 million people using paid subscriptions at the end of 2019. Not random ads for car insurance – but targeted ads fans will want to hear – concert and new release announcements by bands they listen to (for instance). The user-centric model needs to be adopted and the subscription fees need to be increased based on usage. C. It’s all about the pool – and how it’s divided. The problem being, as with any alternative to a mainstream service, that it needs a network effect to happe for it to grow enough… Which is the hard part. For artists, getting on playlists is more important than ever. Average Spotify payout rates have also been steadily decreasing with time. They take 15% + Fees (ex: Paypal) from the artists I represent. We need more studies and, even better, actual commercial trials of the new model to understand how significant its impact would be. So if you want to support artists and still want a streaming service, ditch Spotify and find another like Tidal or Napster. Get Spotify Open Spotify You look like someone who appreciates good music. Could streaming services do something truly meaningful here? Spotify sent an email last week to all artists registered for the Spotify for Artists program, with a link to “2019 Wrapped for Artists.” You need to be an artist with music on Spotify, but that’s it – the company even says you only needed three (!) If you don’t do it you are invisible. That’s why you’ll see these figures in the press, based on data that an artist or label has shared with them. The number one mistake: artists should be uploading tracks into Spotify for Artists at least seven days before it hits the platform. What about other alternatives, like the ones using the blockchain technology to link directly the user to the artist? This is something we’ve been writing about for several years, and although it’s far from a panacea for musicians’ complaints, it does deserve further investigation. Industry gossip varies on which major label(s) are the reason for the delay, but it’s a blunt, bleak illustration of the difficulties in store for user-centric. The industry would be very unwise not to listen. So to ask for a few dollars more each month in subscriptions should not be incredibly hard to do (Netflix seem to be managing to do this just fine). There doesn’t seem to be much written about copyright owners of video content being unhappy with Netflix, for example, compared to music composers/performers? Apologies yes, it starts at 15% for digital music and 10% for merch, then the digital music share drops to 10% “as soon as you reach $5,000 USD in sales (and stays there, provided you’ve made at least $5,000 in the past 12 months)” according to Bandcamp – https://bandcamp.com/pricing, You haven’t talked about the most obvious solution: Spotify needs other revenue streams. Most artists are doing Spotify for Artists wrong — and that dramatically reduces their chances of playlist inclusion. But there’s also a backlash from some musicians who see it as a tacit admission by Spotify that its royalties are paltry, and an insulting device to push the responsibility onto fans. And the smarter artists are taking a paltry paycheck from streaming and making it up on the road. Offline syncing Next, I would suggest that until this streaming payment model is ever set up to be fairer for ALL artists who provide content, get out and support the ones you happen to like. Hey @spotify. It’s been talking about the idea since 2017, and last September it announced its desire to run a pilot by early 2020. United Kingdom, Music Ally is a Registered Learning Provider 10029483. Another way to look at this, though, might be that ending the historical separation of streaming and fan-funding might be a good thing. At the same time, labels (and label alternatives) are making their cases for their share of the revenue, and the good ones are proving their value. Spotify and the like either have to address that fact and change … Yes, Spotify is that much more powerful. NIM is not changing any existing business model, we are making royalties payment more efficient through disintermediation. how? Technology allows us to access our chosen music anywhere, any time and anyhow! Artists can make a good deal of money on streaming platforms like Spotify, which feature millions of active users and streams. Which brings us on to the second, bigger challenge. $9.99 a month is not the global standard, despite the regular conference-stage laments suggesting that it is. Not sure how you got 90% for Bandcamp. Earlier this week, we covered the IFPI’s latest figures for global recorded music revenues, which grew by 8.2% in 2019. Some form of user-centric, payment to artists at a more equitable per play level is essential if you want to avoid the progressive demise of musicians (figuratively and literally!). In 2019 the recorded music industry enjoyed its fifth consecutive year of growth, taking it nearly back to its 2004 level. Subscription streaming – Netflix plus various other services – are winning out with consumers over paying a la carte for digital downloads or video on demand. Exemple of blockchain platforms : Emanate. Although I’m not the first to mention it, for years artists have been advocating to end the unlimited free streaming service that has played a major role in Spotify’s dominance in the market. The contrast between these fears and the rosy industry figures is sharpened now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the live music industry having shut down entirely in many countries, with an anticipated hit to public performance royalties to come. Listen to all your favourite artists on any device for free or try the Premium trial. Check out the idea I posted in the Spotify forums, which would help musicians get in touch with fans while also generating more revenue for Spotify: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Let-Artists-filter-followers-by-Region-to-send-concert/idi-p/4941023. Very late to the party here. Are video streaming companies fairer to copyright owners? There’s no single playbook for success, and the competition in terms of the amount of music being released is ferocious, and daunting. This week, musician Tim Burgess (of the Charlatans, who’s also behind the excellent #TimsTwitterListeningParty co-listening movement) addressed Spotify directly on Twitter, suggesting that “we should look at how much you give to artists… It’s just not fair at the moment”. Artists and managers have more leverage in those negotiations, partly because they have more options for releasing music now. It’s a crucial point, and only partly because musicians’ streaming earnings depend on the contracts with and calculation processes of those rightsholders and royalty collectors. One element of our lives remains completely unchanged – the need for MUSIC – We all seem to find that life is intolerable without it. If subscribers will swallow it, increasing the price of a music streaming subscription seems like a straightforward way to increase the pool of royalties. Being able to see that progress and reach in real time is invaluable. It’s not a new complaint, but it might just be coming to a head soon in a battle where Spotify is just a bystander – it certainly won’t want to be the referee. listeners prior to the end of October to qualify for the “Wrapped” report. Once again, there’s no easy answer here: just more questions, and a reminder of the complexity of ‘fairer’ royalties. They are just the plumbing. It’s an issue whose tensions go beyond ‘streaming services versus musicians’ into some of the long-simmering dynamics of the music industry – from dodgy artist deals to the splits between recordings and songs (compositions). It is the largest and most popular subscription-based music streaming platform. thought it could generate more revenue with a pricing model other than unlimited streaming for a flat monthly fee, it has every financial incentive to do so. Spotify’s conversion rate is actually pretty good: 45.5% of its listeners are on Spotify Premium, although that includes people on half-price student plans, and also members of family plans. These models can work brilliantly for some creators, but not all. Resulting in “More money, faster – to copyright owners…” In fact up to 45% more and 26 million times faster! The recent unrest around artist royalties has also seen a fair few mentions of ‘user-centric’ payouts as a possible solution. Of course, some aspects of Spotify's social features aren't quite so good. Finally, allowing companies like Spotify to continue using their current payment model is simply not acceptable. It pays labels, distributors, publishers and collecting societies, and they then pay musicians. As we said, we’ve structured it as questions, because this article isn’t pretending to provide a set of neat answers. Spoiler: there is no right price: how much people will pay depends on where they are in the world; their personal financial status; and their level of engagement with music. The labels literally charge users on Spotify et all for the access to their content just being there, otherwise there is no explanation as to why 5% of my suscription would go to Drake, I’m paying for the access to it, even though I never listen to it. Which is not to say Tidal is the perfect model, just that it is at least a bit better. Built for artists and their teams, Spotify for Artists helps you to understand your audience, manage your artist profile, and celebrate new releases and milestones. Should be noted too that Spotify is, yes, investing lots of money into its technology. (2) We’ve seen the same thing happen in video. A couple other data points also suggest that unlimited streaming for one price is here to stay: (1) We’ve seen flat rate streaming subscriptions eclipse digital downloads in the music marketplace with both of them available, and with digital downloads of course having a head start. Yes, user-centric would redistribute some royalties from the biggest tracks and artists to those in the mid and long tail of the streaming catalogues. We may well continue to make music purely for the love of it, but that does not put dinner on the table. Publishers (and thus songwriters) get a much smaller share of streaming royalties than labels (and thus performers) do. This is really important: Spotify can’t triple the amount it ‘pays per-stream’ because that’s not how it pays out. We and our partners use cookies to personalize your experience, to show you ads based on your interests, and for measurement and analytics purposes. The music industry has mulled (and occasionally forced Spotify to introduce) restrictions on its free tier to prod people towards paying. Spotify, you’ve probably been told, is bad for artists. Make no mistake, us struggling musicians only place music on services such as Spotify, YouTube, and so on because we have no real choice but to do so. These music streaming services falsely believe that it is their success. To play this content, you'll need the Spotify app. It’s what they’re doing already. Classical makes up only a fraction of the market, so these numbers are invariably even smaller. If the appeal is lost (or hadn’t happened in the first place) and Spotify was paying more like 70% of its revenues out again, is that still too low? This is a long-established debate in itself. Here are the two challenges. That’s a question that will be answered through the collective efforts of music companies, streaming services, artists and fans alike. They and their teams are mastering mailing lists; serving their superfans; figuring out social marketing; being smarter with their merchandise; exploring new models like livestreaming; using tech and services to make sure their metadata is accurate and their royalties are collected; making clever use of the ‘on-platform’ creative and marketing tools of the streaming services… they’re taking control of their businesses and hustling to make the most of the current systems and structures. In its developed markets, Spotify has not raised the price of its standard subscription since it launched in 2008, even though some other digital services (Netflix is the frequent comparison) have done, without obviously suffering from customer rage. All of this is being driven by streaming (and particularly by paid streaming subscriptions), yet this growth is accompanied by a resurgence in unrest from the musicians whose work has made that growth possible. Listen to all your favourite artists on any device for free or try the Premium trial. Spotify for Artists gives you tools to develop your fanbase and reach your goals on Spotify. We use our own and third party cookies. @ Will Buckley – if Spotify (or Apple Music, etc.) (For example, artist-rights blog The Trichordist publishes a really useful annual chart based on figures from a mid-sized independent label – its 2019 figure for Spotify was $0.00348 per stream). Step outside that row though. Do you feel it would have it’s place as a long term solution? If you continue browsing we consider you accept the use of cookies. Critics will point to swanky offices and high salaries. See … First, tell us who you are. The pilot has yet to launch. There’s no contradiction between musicians calling for change in the way the streaming economy works, while also working hard to create opportunities for themselves within the system as it stands. With the Tidal plan 6 people get unlimited music access for a lower price than Spotify and artists get paid roughly twice as much. If it does, Spotify and its rivals will … But also, Spotify needs to bring paid advertising to subscriber accounts and not just the free accounts. Still, in western developed countries, the $9.99 figure may be under pressure – to rise. Spotify is a huge music streaming platform with 96 million subscribers and 170 million users overall. 118.6K monthly listeners. Alongside the ‘$9.99 is too cheap’ discussion, though, there’s also still the chance to experiment with even cheaper subscriptions – often limited by catalogue, features and/or how many devices listeners can use – to bring even more of those billions of free listeners in to the paid music world. All the tools you need to build your following and career on Spotify, all in one place. 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