Spotify Artist ROI - how Spotify contributes to the music business

[AeonicSlumber]

This is one of the ballsiest things I've ever seen a non-public e-commerce organization ever do. Spotify officially released a massive swath of data regarding how it pays out artists, some facts about its users, and its overall contribution to the music industry. Check it here:

http://www.spotifyartists.com/spotify-explained/

 

[Keir]

That was really interesting. Especially the part where it shows how much more a Spotify subscriber pays for music in a year than the average US music buyer, and it's still less than I spend every month!

 

[Urban breed]

Look at this: "an average “per stream” payout to rights holders of between $0.006 and $0.0084"
and then imagine what happens if you also have a publisher.
Then on top of that most might even have to split the remaining small portion with some other member(s) of the band (that presumably contributed to the writing or even worse... "it's simply band policy").

 

[Diamond45]

So in other words, the record companies still make a buck and the artists still get screwed.

 

[orcslayr23]

Looks like i'm an above-average non-Spotify adult music listener

I've been interested in Spotify for a while, but never enough to actually try it. Reading this article changed my mind, I think. I'll sign up this weekend, I think.

 

[Urban breed]

So in other words, the record companies still make a buck and the artists still get screwed.

Only if they are somehow also tied to the publishing company.

 

[Jasonic]

I have never been on SPOTIFY.
For those who have, what does "Temporarily Download" mean????

does this mean if you pay the $9.99, you can download, but it only works for a short period of time?

In other words, does the subscriber ever have permanent downloads off SPOTIFY that they can load to their own device, or is it 100% streaming?

Can you literally listen to anything on demand, and then, I assume, whatever you listen to, the artist gets paid?

Do you have to listen to the song in full for the artist to receive a royalty?

Yeah, maybe some of these questions could be answered in the article, but I got so pissed to read the "average" customer only spends $55 a year on music, since I HIGHLY doubt this takes into account sales beyond big box retailers or larger sites like AMAZON.

 

[orcslayr23]

I have never been on SPOTIFY.
For those who have, what does "Temporarily Download" mean????

does this mean if you pay the $9.99, you can download, but it only works for a short period of time?

I think what it means is you have the songs downloaded for as long as you have a subscription to Spotify.

 

[Jasonic]

Still a bit confused.
Ok, so I have it downloaded.
My guess is it must be in a format only playable in SPOTIFY then.
Meaning, I probably couldn't play it in my IPOD, for example, because how could it NOT work there then once I no longer have SPOTIFY?

Ok, sorry, I am probably missing something simple here.........

 

[OdinsCourt]

We are on Spotify somehow...I'm sure it has to do with our label's distributor.

I've had friends and fans talk about how great it is that we are on Spotify. I've never seen any revenue. Maybe we don't hit enough plays so it doesn't hit their threshold.

Spotify is a great idea, and I'm sure lots of artists make money. In our case, I wonder how many people have not bought CDs from us because they pay their Spotify dues and listen there. I know some fans and friends like that who have talked to me before.

The bottom line is that the music industry has changed for better or worse, and the new model for the "undiscovered" bands hasn't been solidified.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

So in other words, the record companies still make a buck and the artists still get screwed.

Yes because record companies should work for free!

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Still a bit confused.
Ok, so I have it downloaded.
My guess is it must be in a format only playable in SPOTIFY then.
Meaning, I probably couldn't play it in my IPOD, for example, because how could it NOT work there then once I no longer have SPOTIFY?

Ok, sorry, I am probably missing something simple here.........

Correct. You can only access it in Spotify.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Look at this: "an average “per stream” payout to rights holders of between $0.006 and $0.0084"
and then imagine what happens if you also have a publisher.
Then on top of that most might even have to split the remaining small portion with some other member(s) of the band (that presumably contributed to the writing or even worse... "it's simply band policy").

I've never understood this argument. The payout per single stream is that low, but there is no overhead, and no direct transaction from the fans. Yeah, it's a fraction of a cent per stream and like a dollar per hundred streams, but if you have people streaming the same song collectively millions of times, you make far more money in the aggregate than if the same amount of people bought the track on iTunes and that's it.

And if the artist has its publishing rights tied up with another party - then so what? They wouldn't see songwriting royalties even if Spotify didn't exist in that case so that's a non sequitur.

 

[TENTH DREAMER DECEIVER]

Yep. The buffet closes as soon as you stop paying.

 

[General Zod]

Still a bit confused.

It works in two different ways if you pay for the premium service.

1. You can stream as much music as you like, ad free, from any device

+

2. You can download 3,333 songs per device. This is ideal in places where you have no signal (airplanes, etc.), poor signal or when you don't want to use data rates to stream. Ideally, you would download the music somewhere where you had WiFi and then listen to it like it was any other MP3 file. The additional benefit to downloading is, you can download files at a higher bit rate than you can stream. The catch is, if you stop paying for the service, you can't play the downloaded files anymore. I'm not quite sure how they disable the files.

The other cool aspect to Spotify is the social media component. You can share playlists among friends, recommend music to friends, see what friends are listening to. It immediately connects you to all of your Facebook friends.

 

[metalprof]

I have been a "premium" member for several months. I spent the last all years of my life paying for all music explicitly, and deliberately not going the route of torrents or illegal downloads. Spotify provides me a comfort zone where I can listen to lots of different music, that I have not explicitly paid for on an individual basis, without feeling like a dirtbag. All hail Spotify!

 

[OrionSon]

Spotify is how I listen to most of my new music. The only issues I have is some bands not showing up (such as no early Blind Guardian, it's just the latest albums), and that the volume is pretty low, to me at least. That being said, I can't really complain, it's free and I'm glad to know it still pays the artists. I still buy physical or digital albums for certain bands. Probably my favorite thing to do is make huge playlists of thousands of songs and just hitting play so I can sit back and learn new bands or so.

 

[nomisofsiman]

When I had a mon-fri job, I used spotify. Typically though as I'm assuming Jason does as well, I prefer listening to it through my iPod that way I have everything in one place.

 

[Urban breed]

I've never understood this argument.

It's not that hard to understand. What you mean is that you don't agree. Well, put it like this... Those numbers aren't exactly going to correspond very well with everyone's reality anyway. My last statement saw one song streamed over 10000 times. That's not much, but.... it should amount to roughly $60, right? Except, in my case, I only hold 50% of the rights (as I'm only a half-assed songwriter and therefore need someone to fill in the other half). That way we're down to $30. I am luckily stupid enough to refuse giving my work away for free so I lose nothing to a publisher. (That could have easily eaten up 50% or more without anyone doing any actual publishing.) How much did I actually see from that song from Spotify? Less than $3. Luckily for me there are other streaming services that actually pay out. I am not going to change my mind about Spotify as from my perspective it is so bad that I actually prefer to see people pirating my music. From a listeners perspective it's pretty good. At least for as long as musicians are happy to finance everything themselves. I guess it is good for me too in a way. It, finally, gives me a good solid reason not to waste my time (and money) making music nobody really cares for anyway.

 

[Mynock]

Urban: I genuinely would like to hear about those other streaming services that do pay out, because tbh all I really ever hear about is Spotify, and nothing about the others. If they are indeed better for you guys, then why not try them too right?