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> Part of Spotify’s pitch to the music industry has been that its royalties — as low as 0.6 cent per stream, according to the company — will accrue to significa

by nfm 12y ago

> Part of Spotify’s pitch to the music industry has been that its royalties — as low as 0.6 cent per stream, according to the company — will accrue to significant levels as the service grows > “Wake Me Up” had been played 168 million times in the United States on that service, yet yielded only $12,359 in publishing royalties, of which he kept less than $4,000. These numbers don't remotely add up - they're off by 2 orders of magnitude. What gives?

ghshephard 12y ago
The $0.006/stream is total payments for everything songwriter, label, performing - everything.
goatforce5 12y ago
Let's say a radio station with 1m listeners plays a song 168 times. How much does the radio station pay out for those 168 plays, and how much ends up as publishing royalties, etc? I honestly have no idea...
- deweller 12y ago
  Been a while since music business class, but here is what I remember: Radio stations don't pay per play. They buy a blanket license from performing rights organizations. Then those organizations listen to sample data and divvy out payments to publishers according to what their sample data says.
- fnordfnordfnord 12y ago
  Artists such as Taylor Swift have to pay for that air time. Payola is alive and well. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=310606 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=310606
dwild 12y ago
> Part of Spotify’s pitch to the music industry has been that its royalties — as low as 0.6 cent per stream, according to the company — will accrue to significant levels as the service grows and as people listen more and more. > Singling out Pandora, the leading Internet radio outlet, he said that “Wake Me Up” had been played 168 million times in the United States on that service, yet yielded only $12,359 in publishing royalties, of which he kept less than $4,000. Spotify != Pandora The answer to your question is in the same sentence as your quotes.

by nfm 12y ago

ghshephard 12y ago

The $0.006/stream is total payments for everything songwriter, label, performing - everything.

goatforce5 12y ago

Let's say a radio station with 1m listeners plays a song 168 times. How much does the radio station pay out for those 168 plays, and how much ends up as publishing royalties, etc? I honestly have no idea...

deweller 12y ago
Been a while since music business class, but here is what I remember: Radio stations don't pay per play. They buy a blanket license from performing rights organizations. Then those organizations listen to sample data and divvy out payments to publishers according to what their sample data says.
fnordfnordfnord 12y ago
Artists such as Taylor Swift have to pay for that air time. Payola is alive and well. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=310606 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=310606

dwild 12y ago

> Part of Spotify’s pitch to the music industry has been that its royalties — as low as 0.6 cent per stream, according to the company — will accrue to significant levels as the service grows and as people listen more and more. > Singling out Pandora, the leading Internet radio outlet, he said that “Wake Me Up” had been played 168 million times in the United States on that service, yet yielded only $12,359 in publishing royalties, of which he kept less than $4,000. Spotify != Pandora The answer to your question is in the same sentence as your quotes.