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"Spotify already pays nearly 70% of every dollar it generates from music to the record labels and publishers", yet musicians still get paid incredibly bad. Mayb
by sleepyfran 3y ago
"Spotify already pays nearly 70% of every dollar it generates from music to the record labels and publishers", yet musicians still get paid incredibly bad. Maybe if the only way of making your business model sustainable is by underpaying artists, your business is just not sustainable.
- willvarfar 3y agoartists sign the deals with the labels, who license it to spotify and the other streaming services? The problem isn't that spotify isn't paying for the content, the problem is that artists sign away the rights to their content? Is spotify the baddie here?
- justsomehnguy 3y agoThere is no shortage of artists. Note: the parent changed their comment
- TheOtherHobbes 3y agoYes, it's an industry problem. Spotify is just the latest and nastiest incarnation.
- boesboes 3y agoyeah, just get a better paying job!
- Karellen 3y agoYes, artists have the wonderful choice of being able to sign for one of three labels, with no meaningful distinction between the deals any of them offer, because that's just how oligopolies roll. And they collude^Whave deals with spotify. Maybe spotify and the labels suck? https://www.promarket.org/2022/10/03/why-streaming-doesnt-pay/ https://www.promarket.org/2022/10/03/why-streaming-doesnt-pa...
- troupo 3y agoAnd what would you have Spotify do in this situation? Sign artists directly? And draw the ire of those three labels who will immediately pull all their music from the service?
- Karellen 3y agoI don't think there is anything Spotify can do themselves ...which is why legislation like the Uruguay bill is a good thing, and important.
- dbbk 3y agoThey could independently release through Spotify if they wanted to. They're not forced to sign to labels. And even if they were, that's not Spotify's problem.
- 93po 3y agoGetting big in music requires a lot of money and connections that I assume labels make intentionally difficult to access outside of them
- mptest 3y agoTrue, good point. famously never exploitative music contracts. I don't think I've ever heard of a famous artist being taken advantage of via "deals".
- 93po 3y agoI hear this all the time
- madeofpalk 3y agoRight - I'm confused how the record labels get out of this with zero criticism.
- HDThoreaun 3y agoIndie artists are all on Spotify too. Neil young is basically the one one who isn’t at this point
- piva00 3y agoLabels take 50-90% of the royalties money, depending how big the artist is. Huge artists can have their own sweetheart deals, or their own labels, but 50-90% of a cut to the label is pretty usual.
- zemvpferreira 3y agoOr maybe being an artist is an unsustainable career for most.
- rchaud 3y agoConsidering Spotify has never made a profit in its history, they're in good company.
- zemvpferreira 3y agoQuite possibly. Here's what irks me: no one promises businesses/entrepreneurs a right to earn money doing what you want. You find a market to serve and use leverage to extract a price for your service. You don't find your market and leverage, you don't make money. Lord knows I've made and lost plenty. There's at least a sizeable minority that doesn't believe this applies to professions, especially creative ones. That effort or talent or belief mean you're entitled to make a living at some thing. I'm sorry to everyone who invested 20 years in their promising celloist career but I just don't support that notion.
- rchaud 3y ago> no one promises businesses/entrepreneurs a right to earn money doing what you want. I dont know if that's true anymore. It seems that investors are happy to make founders incredibly rich well before the company even shows a hint of profitability. Daniel Ek being a billionaire in spite of never turning a profit isn't in line with business orthodoxy. With creative professionals, they might get a fat advance from their record label, but it'll be clawed back with studio fees, tour logistics and managerial fees.
- zemvpferreira 3y agoFor every entrepreneur who gets rich off mooching from vc, 10000 are reading your comment with despair. Most people never get any funding to begin with. Not so different I would say.
- troupo 3y ago> Maybe if the only way of making your business model sustainable is by underpaying artists Spotify pays 70% of its revenue to music labels... but its Spotify's fault that this money never reaches the artists?
- jbverschoor 3y agoMore like 40% instead of 70%
- troupo 3y agoWe can't know for sure because we don't know the exact contracts. Forbes has an overview, but the numbers mostly come from Spotify: https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/03/24/spotify-says-it-paid-7-billion-in-royalties-in-2021-amid-claims-of-low-pay-from-artists/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/03/24/spoti... You can look up cost of revenue (which is predominantly royalties) in their financials: https://investors.spotify.com/financials/default.aspx https://investors.spotify.com/financials/default.aspx
- jbverschoor 3y agoI did already. See my comments.. it’s about half of 70% of revenue.
- troupo 3y agoThe comments I saw were you just claiming it's half of the 70%. According to 2022 annual statement, audit section, page F-3 --- start quote --- For the year ended December 31, 2022, the Company's cost of revenue was €8,801 million. As of December 31, 2022, trade payables and accrued fees to rights holders was €588 million and €1,665 million, respectively. As explained in Note 2 of the consolidated financial statements, cost of revenue and rights holder liabilities consist predominantly of royalty and distribution costs related to content streaming. --- end quote --- - total cost $8.9 billion of that: - trade payables $0.59 billion - fees to rights holders $1.67 billion The rest (~7 billion aka 78%) is royalties and cost of distribution. Unless you can argue and show that cost of distribution is over $2-3 billion, only then can you claim that only half of that 70% is going to the labels.
- JCharante 3y agoArtists should stop giving Spotify streaming rights then. And then I'll pirate all their songs and they'll get zilch.
- sleepyfran 3y agoAmazing reasoning. Let's hope not everyone in our industry will also think the same, otherwise we're pretty much doomed :)
- jbverschoor 3y agoCan we please stop the lies about Spotify being the goodie two shoes of royalties? The information is false. Apple pays a LOT more to artists.
- satyrnein 3y agoThey both pay approximately the same for premium subscribers, and Apple's trial period pays approximately the same as Spotify's ad supported model. They're both trying to drive premium subscriptions, which make both them and rightsholders more money, but using different strategies to get there
- satyrnein 3y agoApple's App Store pays out 70% of every dollar to app developers, yet most apps make nothing. It's less about the 70%, and more that infinite shelf space and finite human attention leads to a lot of ignored products.