[rm999]

> If they can make the average song listened to by a user just 1 second longer, they reduce that by about 0.5%.

This isn't how music royalties work - rather, Spotify (and most other on demand streaming services) pay out a % of their net revenue to rights holders. This % does not change based on how many streams there are in total, but it IS distributed proportionally based on the number of streams, so it's more profitable for a music rightsholder to have more streams (the topic of the article).

Some high level information: https://support.spotify.com/us/artists/article/royalties/

[wryun]

But also:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/06/deezer-and-...

[lotsofpulp]

Can you define “net revenue”? Do you mean gross revenue, because Spotify does not earn profit (aka net income)?

[datavirtue]

They must be evil communists/socialists.

[MuffinFlavored]

Is a stream defined as wonderful listen through the song or like maybe halfway through?

[morkalork]

Seems like they should measure proportions using seconds streamed vs units streamed?

[reducesuffering]

They both seem primitive. If a user paid $10/month for a subscription, each month they should divvy that $10 to the proportional minutes listened of each artist for that month. That’s paying out to the people that are keeping that person subscribed. Minus Spotify’s cut of course

[conradfr]

I'm sure that's where most people think their subscription money goes but the industry made sure it's not.

[DrJokepu]

That’s kind of how SoundCloud does it (they call it user-centric payment model), it has the added benefit of curtailing fraud.

[foota]

White noise and other background sounds cause issues here.

[conradfr]

That's why you'll see more of this:

https://www.universalmusic.com/universal-music-group-and-dee...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-09-07/univer...

[lotsofpulp]

So Universal Music Group is depending on its competitor, Warner Music Group (owned by Access Industries which also owns Deezer)?

Interesting. I thought Universal/Warner/Sony were propping up Spotify as leverage for when they need to negotiate with Apple/Google/Amazon.

[Broken_Hippo]

Those are already an issue that Spotify has.

https://www.engadget.com/spotify-almost-removed-white-noise-....

[theLiminator]

How so, maybe that just means those white noise tracks bring the most value.

[morkalork]

Right? As a user, if I listen to 2 hours of content split equally between sources A and B, it seems fair that they each get half of my subscription fee (less Spotify's cut). Regardless of if A views B's content as "less worthy". On the other hand I wouldn't sign up for a monthly white noise service and if A went on strike and didn't renew license agreements, that's what Spotify would become. Record labels do have leverage over white noise which is a commodity (right? y'all aren't beholden to certain streams are you??)

[internet101010]

I actually do have certain episodes/streams saved that are my go-tos.

Navigating "rain sounds" has become a lot more difficult lately specifically due to record labels complaining, particularly if you want one continuous 8hr stream. Instead all I can find now are playlists with a bunch of things I don't want. If I didn't have my favorites already saved I wouldn't be able to find them at all now.