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Platforms like Spotify, YouTube, etc, are a marketing channel - not a revenue channel. They can be used effectively to develop an audience, but not to monetize

Platforms like Spotify, YouTube, etc, are a marketing channel - not a revenue channel. They can be used effectively to develop an audience, but not to monetize it. For example see Pusheen the cat. Started off as a tumblr web comic/character and now generates millions in merchandising revenue: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/how-an-internet-cat-craze-became-a-toy-empire-1287225 https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/how-an-internet-cat-craze-be...

geden 8y ago
Not true for Spotify, if you are regularly racking up millions of plays ie you are hitting editorial playlists, then Spotify is very lucrative. Good Spotify stats also signals to promoters that you are a good to book, so it boosts live income. I'd agree on YouTube however, artists I work with see very little income from YouTube, which is quite sickening and problematic for artists given how much of the younger demographic use YouTube as a primary source of music.
wwweston 8y ago
> Platforms like Spotify, YouTube, etc, are a marketing channel - not a revenue channel Which would be cool, if Spotify wasn't meant to be a replacement for a revenue channel.
- lmpostor 8y ago
  You can't replace something that is dead.
  - wwweston 8y ago
    Revenues from US digital recorded music sales steadily rose from the introduction of iTunes up into the billions through at least 2012. Maybe 2013/14-ish. I think at one point it'd actually matched 90s CD sales revenue, though I may not recall correctly. That was hardly "dead." There's this narrative that goes around "oh, yeah, the internet happened, copies are cheap, no one was ever going to buy music again" ... and it's not true. The truth is that there was a thriving digital recording sales growing up to take the place of physical recording sales. And buffet streaming kneecaped it.
    - Daishiman 8y ago
      Buffet streaming killed it because it's cost-competitive to the consumer, period. That's a triumph of capitalism.
      - wwweston 8y ago
        At best that's like saying it's a triumph of capitalism when Walmart hollows out local retailers, or industrial agriculture hollows out smaller operators and with it communities. Sure, you get cheaper goods, but there are less pleasant externalities that go with it. As someone once said about another triumph of capitalism: when you value McDonalds, you get McJobs. Possibly McMusic, as well.

geden 8y ago

Not true for Spotify, if you are regularly racking up millions of plays ie you are hitting editorial playlists, then Spotify is very lucrative. Good Spotify stats also signals to promoters that you are a good to book, so it boosts live income. I'd agree on YouTube however, artists I work with see very little income from YouTube, which is quite sickening and problematic for artists given how much of the younger demographic use YouTube as a primary source of music.

wwweston 8y ago

> Platforms like Spotify, YouTube, etc, are a marketing channel - not a revenue channel Which would be cool, if Spotify wasn't meant to be a replacement for a revenue channel.

lmpostor 8y ago
You can't replace something that is dead.
- wwweston 8y ago
  Revenues from US digital recorded music sales steadily rose from the introduction of iTunes up into the billions through at least 2012. Maybe 2013/14-ish. I think at one point it'd actually matched 90s CD sales revenue, though I may not recall correctly. That was hardly "dead." There's this narrative that goes around "oh, yeah, the internet happened, copies are cheap, no one was ever going to buy music again" ... and it's not true. The truth is that there was a thriving digital recording sales growing up to take the place of physical recording sales. And buffet streaming kneecaped it.
  - Daishiman 8y ago
    Buffet streaming killed it because it's cost-competitive to the consumer, period. That's a triumph of capitalism.
    - wwweston 8y ago
      At best that's like saying it's a triumph of capitalism when Walmart hollows out local retailers, or industrial agriculture hollows out smaller operators and with it communities. Sure, you get cheaper goods, but there are less pleasant externalities that go with it. As someone once said about another triumph of capitalism: when you value McDonalds, you get McJobs. Possibly McMusic, as well.