Article "Streaming Music is Ripping You Off" or more correctly artists

[Demondes]

Came across the following article on distribution of royalties from a typical streaming service (Referencing Apple And Spotify). 

 

https://medium.com/cuepoint/streaming-music-is-ripping-you-off-61dc501e7f94

 

I personally haven't validated that it actually works this way 100%, but seems the royalties go into a big pot and are divided per click and that doesn't require the complete listening of the song to generate revenue (between 20sec and 31 seconds is valid).

 

Key points

• Your monthly fee doesn't pay for the artists you listen but
• The system can be potentially gamed via click fraud (only speculation based on how wide spread click fraud is on platforms like Twitter)
• An alternative payment model is offered called a "subscriber share" method.  This would be fairer in supporting artists you actually listen to, but obviously makes payments a little more complex as an IT problem

Edited April 21, 2020 by Marc
Fixed link for you

[metal beat]

or you could do it the old fashioned way.   

 

Buy the record or cd.    Over the years I have paid the artists and record companies a small fortune and am happy to continue to do so.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by metal beat

[Demondes]

Thanks @Marc  I should have double checked the link.

[pwstereo]

Much prefer to buy my digital music as high quality downloads that are mine to store and keep.

I would not like streaming to be my primary source of music.

[t_mike]

I was about to subscribe, but there's no way I'm giving anything to Nickleback.

[bob_m_54]

5 hours ago, metal beat said:

or you could do it the old fashioned way.   

 

Buy the record or cd.    Over the years I have paid the artists and record companies a small fortune and am happy to continue to do so.

 

 

Yeah, not always the case though. Tight ( * )s like me buy them second hand.

[sir sanders zingmore]

6 hours ago, metal beat said:

or you could do it the old fashioned way.   

 

Buy the record or cd.    Over the years I have paid the artists and record companies a small fortune and am happy to continue to do so.

 

 

I like your thinking but to be honest, I'm not convinced that the artists see any more revenue that way

[metal beat]

4 minutes ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

I like your thinking but to be honest, I'm not convinced that the artists see any more revenue that way

 

Seemed to work during the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's in making many artists very rich.   Despite many of them complaining about terrible contracts.

   But, why get facts in the way of an opinion. 

[sir sanders zingmore]

11 minutes ago, metal beat said:

But, why get facts in the way of an opinion. 

why so aggressive?

[Kaynin]

5 hours ago, t_mike said:

I was about to subscribe, but there's no way I'm giving anything to Nickleback.

 

Lol.  I love Nickleback jokes...

[metal beat]

52 minutes ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

why so aggressive?

 

Direct,  not aggressive.   Sorry if u are offended.

[eltech]

There is unfair and unethical behaviour in many industries. It's good to expose the unfairness. Hopefully things will become fair through awareness.

 

Artists have the right to avoid streaming services if that's what they want to do.

This article is one of many that have exposed the streaming service tricks.

 

As was said earlier, many artists have complained about their record contracts. And many consumers have complained about the price of physical media.

 

This reported unfairness wasn't a reason to not buy physical media (or for some people perhaps it was?)

 

And the present reported unfairness of streaming services also isn't a reason not to subscribe and enjoy music. (Or perhaps it is)

 

Will we ever get to a point where everyone agrees upon a way of distributing music that is fair to all?

 

The internet broke existing ways of doing everything, and created new ways of doing things. 

 

If people only did things that were 100% fair and sustainable it would be a very different world. We'd need to treat other people with dignity and respect and fairness at all times.

That would be very challenging for many people to do because so much of society is based upon exploitation in one form or another.

 

[Russell Berg]

On 21/04/2020 at 8:24 PM, sir sanders zingmore said:

I like your thinking but to be honest, I'm not convinced that the artists see any more revenue that way

They do believe me !

[JPete9]

The pre streaming industry was screwing artists too. Streaming is just a new flavour, bigger margins and great concentration of profit...the righteousness is misplaced.

 

Purchased to own vs subscribe to access - these are the true choices.

[firedog]

Spotify and several other big streaming services are partially owned by the record labels. The whole system is setup to give the labels and corporations a much bigger share of the pie than was possible with physical media. The result is that it's extremely difficult to make a living from streaming, unless you are a mega artist. A million streams on YouTube pays the artist something like $3000.

 

And songwriters get literally next to nothing - just a few bucks. 

That's why I continue to buy either physical media or downloads of artists I like. They make lots more money that way. And they make even more if I buy the album and then also stream it. 

[keyse1]

On 25/04/2020 at 9:36 PM, JPete9 said:

The pre streaming industry was screwing artists too. Streaming is just a new flavour, bigger margins and great concentration of profit...the righteousness is misplaced.

 

Purchased to own vs subscribe to access - these are the true choices.

True

But there is a monster difference between being screwed and rapaciously raped