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Record Labels Keeping All the Money from Spotify, Rather Than Giving to Artists
- anigbrowl 12y agoTypical techdirt bullshit. The report claims that 95% of that money that goes to the labels goes to cover all of the "expenses" those poor poor labels have to endure to record and... um... upload(?) the actual music. Sure, in the past, it may have been reasonable for the labels to take on large fees for distribution -- but that's when it meant manufacturing tons of plastic and vinyl and then shipping it to thousands of record stores around the globe. In this case, there's no manufacturing, and distribution is an "upload" button. So streaming revenue can only be applied to streaming expenses, and can't be used to offset the costs of physical production, advertising, tour underwriting...? Presumably Mike Masnick also thinks that CD revenues were never used to pay off the expenses of vinyl pressing or promotional swag. He's probably also oblivious to the fact that many musical acts lose money and until they become profitable any incoming revenue will be used to pay off money advanced by the label. And the lowish (IMHO) payouts from services like Spotify don't go as far as some other revenue sources when it comes down to paying off the up-front expenses. Is Mike Masnick really this stupid, or does he just like pandering to his readers' ignorance? these statistics are meaningless absent any context of profit and loss for the labels. It's not that I love record labels, but typically they are fronting the money for the production, marketing, and sitribution and I don't think it's so weird that they prioritize recovering their investment, like any other capitalist entity does. It's not like pop singers and rock bands are going to have an IPO and sell shares direct to the public.