4 ms·

This was linked from some Twitter posts from cellist Zoe Keating, who makes some interesting modern music. I'm impressed that she's making here numbers public.

This was linked from some Twitter posts from cellist Zoe Keating, who makes some interesting modern music. I'm impressed that she's making here numbers public. She gets more from Pandora than Spotify. https://twitter.com/zoecello/status/231126328924061696 https://twitter.com/zoecello/status/231126328924061696

citricsquid 14y ago
What I find most interesting is someone with 1.3m Twitter followers is having so little of her music streamed, I assume that this is because the majority of her fans purchase her music? I notice she has a Bandcamp account. I think it would be great to see her Bandcamp sales figures too as a point of reference, and ideally an explanation of how being available on Spotify / Pandora affected her sales figures. She's also posted some more stats here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkasqHkVRM1OdEJFUnhyNFFkZjVSUWxhWGl1dE9lQXc#gid=6 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkasqHkVRM1OdEJ...
- stephengillie 14y ago
  How many of those followers aren't fans, but: 1. bots 2. People who want to set up a business deal (everyone from major label agents to real estate agents) 3. Random people that follow others in the hopes of gaining more followers
- beatpanda 14y ago
  Her Bandcamp sales figures are in the spreadsheet.
  - citricsquid 14y ago
    oh, the spreadsheet has changed since posted. Thanks!
    - jamesbritt 14y ago
      Also, there are tabs at the bottom to view different pages of the spreadsheet. (Sorry if I'm saying something obvious; I didn't catch it at first myself.)
- protomyth 14y ago
  Maybe people who listen to her are more into CDs and buying from iTunes / Amazon?
  - bigiain 14y ago
    FWIW, I've got both her albums and her EP on CD, one of those albums on vinyl as well, and an iTunes copy of the other album (since the CD didn't arrive quickly enough). I also buy concert tickets at every opportunity: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigiain/7325677270/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigiain/7325677270/ I'm a bit of a fan… If you've not heard her music (or want to hear more) there's a free (legal) download here: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundquality/sqy-16/4012556 http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundquality/sq... She's a bit of a geek/hacker too - she runs a laptop with Ableton Live, sooperlooper, and a bunch of custom applescripts (which don't always play nice when the laptop sleeps, she sometimes needs to reboot on stage), and she was talking about building some custom microcontroller hardware to give her easier/different control compared to the midi footpedal she's using.
- bigiain 14y ago
  $80,000 (net after fees) of downloads/physical sales in six months (without label support, which is pretty impressive to me) - that's presumably something like $120K gross sales (before iTunes/Amazon's 30% cut and credit card fees). If you attribute _all_ of that to twitter (big assumption!), then it values her twitter followers at ~$0.18/year. I wonder how many twitterers beat that?
bicknergseng 14y ago
She gets more from NPR than Spotify.
waterlesscloud 14y ago
Why are there different "unit" rates for the same song on the same day on Spotify? Weird.
- pyoung 14y ago
  My best guess is that payment is based on some sort of revenue sharing agreement. So Spotify takes a portion of it's revenue for a certain time period and divides it equally among the artists based on the number of times their songs were played.
- jessevondoom 14y ago
  Different payout rates for free versus paid users, which also varies from country to country based on negotiated royalty rates. I'd also assume exchange rates come into play.
guelo 14y ago
The music industry has negotiated really hard with Pandora over the years and came close to killing them off a few times by raising the rates to more than Pandora could pay. At this point the music industry is basically taking all of Pandora's profits leaving them razor thin margins. I don't know why Spotify has gotten such a better deal except maybe through the influence of Kleiner Perkins.

citricsquid 14y ago

What I find most interesting is someone with 1.3m Twitter followers is having so little of her music streamed, I assume that this is because the majority of her fans purchase her music? I notice she has a Bandcamp account. I think it would be great to see her Bandcamp sales figures too as a point of reference, and ideally an explanation of how being available on Spotify / Pandora affected her sales figures. She's also posted some more stats here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkasqHkVRM1OdEJFUnhyNFFkZjVSUWxhWGl1dE9lQXc#gid=6 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkasqHkVRM1OdEJ...

stephengillie 14y ago
How many of those followers aren't fans, but: 1. bots 2. People who want to set up a business deal (everyone from major label agents to real estate agents) 3. Random people that follow others in the hopes of gaining more followers
beatpanda 14y ago
Her Bandcamp sales figures are in the spreadsheet.
- citricsquid 14y ago
  oh, the spreadsheet has changed since posted. Thanks!
  - jamesbritt 14y ago
    Also, there are tabs at the bottom to view different pages of the spreadsheet. (Sorry if I'm saying something obvious; I didn't catch it at first myself.)
protomyth 14y ago
Maybe people who listen to her are more into CDs and buying from iTunes / Amazon?
- bigiain 14y ago
  FWIW, I've got both her albums and her EP on CD, one of those albums on vinyl as well, and an iTunes copy of the other album (since the CD didn't arrive quickly enough). I also buy concert tickets at every opportunity: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigiain/7325677270/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigiain/7325677270/ I'm a bit of a fan… If you've not heard her music (or want to hear more) there's a free (legal) download here: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundquality/sqy-16/4012556 http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundquality/sq... She's a bit of a geek/hacker too - she runs a laptop with Ableton Live, sooperlooper, and a bunch of custom applescripts (which don't always play nice when the laptop sleeps, she sometimes needs to reboot on stage), and she was talking about building some custom microcontroller hardware to give her easier/different control compared to the midi footpedal she's using.
bigiain 14y ago
$80,000 (net after fees) of downloads/physical sales in six months (without label support, which is pretty impressive to me) - that's presumably something like $120K gross sales (before iTunes/Amazon's 30% cut and credit card fees). If you attribute _all_ of that to twitter (big assumption!), then it values her twitter followers at ~$0.18/year. I wonder how many twitterers beat that?

bicknergseng 14y ago

She gets more from NPR than Spotify.

waterlesscloud 14y ago

Why are there different "unit" rates for the same song on the same day on Spotify? Weird.

pyoung 14y ago
My best guess is that payment is based on some sort of revenue sharing agreement. So Spotify takes a portion of it's revenue for a certain time period and divides it equally among the artists based on the number of times their songs were played.
jessevondoom 14y ago
Different payout rates for free versus paid users, which also varies from country to country based on negotiated royalty rates. I'd also assume exchange rates come into play.

guelo 14y ago

The music industry has negotiated really hard with Pandora over the years and came close to killing them off a few times by raising the rates to more than Pandora could pay. At this point the music industry is basically taking all of Pandora's profits leaving them razor thin margins. I don't know why Spotify has gotten such a better deal except maybe through the influence of Kleiner Perkins.