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Everyone is very focused on the contrast between the Radio royalties and the Streaming royalties - but we all skipped right past that first item: $149,000 in ro
by sxates 9y ago
Everyone is very focused on the contrast between the Radio royalties and the Streaming royalties - but we all skipped right past that first item: $149,000 in royalties for writing a song (just the first 3 years).
That's a lot of money - more than most people make in 2-3 years - for what probably amounted to a few weeks of work. And we're supposed to feel sorry for him because he couldn't retire on it? Seems to me if he got 1 of these per year he'd be pretty set.
- tjr 9y agoI don't think his problem was with the $149,000, but rather, with the trend toward $200 for tens of millions of streaming plays. I.e., it might not be long before a comparable song with comparable popularity earns him $1000 instead of $150,000.
- sxates 9y agoI have to accept that the value of the work I do may change in time, either up or down. Why do people in the music industry not have to accept that as well? Why are they entitled to the same economics decade after decade, while the rest of the world changes?
- tjr 9y agoI personally think that music is a bad career choice. I started out majoring in music in college 20 years ago before switching to computer science, and while I still enjoy playing and writing and recording music, I enjoy whatever money I may get from it like a bonus. I don't think that music industry people are entitled to anything in particular. I do think there's probably something suboptimal going on with streaming payments. If I were watching payment for my work drop 100x, I would probably be both looking for ways to "correct" that if possible, and looking for other work to do...
- vkou 9y agoWriting a top hit song is a 'few weeks of work' as much as writing a program is 'hitting the 'submit' button in your source control system.' You don't get paid for all the non-hit songs you wrote.
- pwinnski 9y agoI get paid the same for all the code I write, but none of it ever has any chance at all of still paying me three years later. None of it. Ever.