[Arqu]

I somehow keep being fascinated by people think they're ripped off. I mean sure, Spotify is making a decent buck out of it, but it's not like the artists are doing it for free.

There's much more to the whole process. Firs to earn something per play there need to be ads that finance it. Then imagine the technical hurdle and cost to host such a platform (ie Spotify cut) and then you actually being worth a damn as an artist.

1M views might seem like a lot, but actually its quite a limited resource for serving ads. The other thing here is that most artists wouldn't have a single view if it wasn't for one or the other distributor. Basically, the barrier is so low to entry and the risk is dispersed across a million other artists so you all get a very diluted value per view. But at least you get value per view. Otherwise, it would have been an all or nothing business, like it used to be. It's the same effect the app stores had for software devs.

In essence, you get low fees because those funds pay for the distribution and risk that is dispersed. The general pay scale is a hockey stick with the last couple % making the majority of the money.

Since you even got the opportunity to get in front of an audience, use it wisely as you need to pump those numbers up. It's a numbers game and your numbers are too low. You need double-digit millions to make a good living off of it. And that's just what it takes. It's not easy, not everyone will make it above the fold, for whatever reason life, luck, marketing...

[kakarot]

They are getting ripped off.

Many record companies, in their own financial interest, reduced the royalty cost for streams with Spotify in exchange for revenue shares.

I would feel pretty ripped off if I made a big, delicious cake, and as a reward I get one tiny slice while I had to watch everyone else eat the rest. Maybe not if making cakes is just a small hobby for me, but definitely so if it's my career.

[Arqu]

I'm not arguing the case here that the whole scene is set up fair and square. Probably the complete opposite. However, expecting 1M views of random music play to be worth more than some $5k is a long stretch. On their own, sure 1M views would account for much more if it was a very focused platform, however, it caters to a huge palette of artists. The dispersion of risk/quality and focus targets makes it not really the prime money machines.

If you want to make money in this industry - keep to the old-fashioned methods. Concerts and live performances are what rake in the big money - CDs, Views or whatever useless metric people try to convert to $$ numbers only works in obscene numbers. All else is just trying to get there - and that is usually the dirty and hard part of the music industry.

[zethraeus]

> I would feel pretty ripped off if I made a big, delicious cake, and as a reward I get one tiny slice while I had to watch everyone else eat the rest. Maybe not if making cakes is just a small hobby for me, but definitely so if it's my career.

this analogy doesn't even begin to approximate the real dynamics.

[ajaimk]

Citation please

[kakarot]

It's common knowledge. I don't need to provide a citation every time I bring it up.

But here, since you're too lazy to look it up or write more than two words:

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/heres-exactly-how-man...

Interestingly, earlier this year several record companies either mostly or fully divested in Spotify, with some companies like Warner getting over half a billion dollars. Reasons are unclear even though they have made vague public statements.