3 ms·
The problem is that not all songs are equal. People don't care about all artists equally, and therefore the "value" of a stream is different if you're listening
by ucaetano 8y ago
The problem is that not all songs are equal. People don't care about all artists equally, and therefore the "value" of a stream is different if you're listening to a song from, say, Taylor Swift, compared to a song from an unknown artist that gets about 10 streams per month.
Another way to think about it is the value at risk for the streaming company of an artist being dropped from the service. Nobody (or close to it) will stop subscribing to Spotify if a random, unknown artist who only gets a few streams leaves the service. But if you had a few major artists drop the service, you'd see a drop in value much bigger than their share (in streams) of the revenue.
Just as you don't expect a Van Gogh to cost the same as my kindergarten painting, or Jeff Dean to be paid the same as someone just out of college, you wouldn't expect a stream from Taylor Swift to be paid the same as that of a random unknown tuba player.
- perfmode 8y agoI don’t see how this isn’t solved by swift having -more- streams.
- longerthoughts 8y agoAgreed. The Van Gogh vs kindergarten painting example is a poor comparison - that would be more in line with buying the rights to all future royalties of a Taylor Swift song vs that of an unknown tuba player. This does make me wonder though - is there any market for recorded musical works as there is for physical works of art? For example, could the collective stakeholders in a Taylor Swift hit sell their share of future earnings based on a risk adjusted valuation of projected earnings? There would be implications for earnings on tour but interesting nonetheless.
- ucaetano 8y agoBecause the value of each of her streams is larger than the value of a single stream of another artist. It isn't the total $, it is the $/stream. Would you pay the same to see a Van Gogh painting that you'd pay to see your local 3rd grader's painting? (not you personally, think of the average person).
- perfmode 8y agoThis argument isn’t justified by the example you present.
- ucaetano 8y agoSure it is. If you had a museum with a single painting, and you charged $10 for the entry, would you rather have a Van Gogh or a 3rd grader painting? Which one do you think people will be willing to pay for? And if you had a museum with two painting, a Van Gogh and a 3rd grader, and you pay a % of your ticket price back to the artist. Would you pay the same % to Van Gogh as you'd pay to the 3rd grader?
- perfmode 8y agoI'd pay based on the number of views. The Van Gogh is likely to get more views than the 3rd grader.
- p1necone 8y agoI pay for Spotify because everything I want to listen to pretty much seems to be on it. If many of the small artists with only a few streams per month left I would probably unsubscribe. Sure millions of people listen to Taylor Swift, but millions of people in aggregate also listen to Folk Punk, or Indie Country, or their own small local artists on the service too. I like Spotify because I can go and listen to the latest single by the Foo Fighters or whatever, and the next moment on a whim I'll search up this gem: https://open.spotify.com/album/2JDWZnVNQ2RpUWUF5XNkcX?si=YuJMV77PQpughebXkue24w https://open.spotify.com/album/2JDWZnVNQ2RpUWUF5XNkcX?si=YuJ... and lo and behold it's there too. (warning: album title is a bit nsfw)
- longerthoughts 8y agoThe parent isn't saying that the service doesn't need artists with fewer streams, just that the service takes a bigger hit from losing big names than it does from losing small ones. More people are likely to leave the service from Spotify losing Taylor Swift than from losing a budding Noise artist with 3 followers.
- mynegation 8y agoFunny thing, I subscribed to Spotify _because_ it was at the time Taylor Swift-free zone. (I like her as a person though).
- ucaetano 8y agoSure, but you're one in many millions, the vast majority of users have the exact opposite behavior.
- p1necone 8y agoDo they? Lots more people listen to Taylor Swift than they do any single given "niche" artist, but there's also a lot more niche artists than there are Taylor Swifts (or equivalent).