- Spotify: “How much money goes to artists and composers depends on their own contracts”
- Many tracks on Spotify do not generate royalties, and favor great artists
- However, there are still ways to support artists directly
Spotify is bothering the artists who accuse him of monopolizing all the money of music transmission. Speaking to our colleagues about Musicradar, he pointed to the intermediaries between Spotify and the artists themselves.
Spotify has one point: there are many people who often take very large cuts of money before the artist arrives. But Spotify is also a bit false here, because intermediaries or does not pay a single penny for most of the songs that can be transmitted from their service, and although their general payments are huge, the part of the lion is destined to the artists who are already huge.
I am a musician in banks and earn more money with a single sale of Bandcamp than I hope to do any transmission service this year. If you want to support artists, transmission is not the way to do it.
Where does Spotify money really go?
Spotify’s statement was partly in response to Gavin Rossdale, who said “we know that Spotify barely pays. And whatever they pay, record companies make sure they sign most before the artist approaches.”
When writing in Musicradar, Spotify said: “As Gavin points out correctly, transmission services do not pay artists or composers directly. They pay the rights holders, who in turn pay artists and composers based on their individual agreements. Once that income leaves a service like Spotify’s hands, how much money goes to artists and composers depends on their own contracts with their rightists. “
That is absolutely true, and if you imagine you transmit income as a cake, then there are many people who fill the faces before the artist obtains the remaining crumbs. The music business is infamous because of its ability to bring large amounts of money without giving much to talent. But while the transmission cake is huge, most of that cake is given to the largest artists through their record companies, while many artists are not offered any crumbs.
Music transmission services do not pay artists directly, and do not pay for transmission. After having taken its cut of their subscription rates, generally 30% to cover operating costs and profits, then pay royalties based on market share. Spotify explains it here: “We calculate streamshare by counting the total number of transmissions in a certain month and determining what proportion of these transmissions listened to people who listened to music owned or controlled by a particular right.”
That is great if you are Taylor Swift or Kendrick Lamar. But it is not so good if you are a garage band that just begins. From 2024, Spotify has demonized songs that do not obtain 1,000 transmissions per year, according to some estimates, 86% of music on the platform. As Air Herestand explained in Variety, “an artist with 20 songs of just under 1,000 broadcasts, each would win around $ 60. Now that artist would win $ 0. $ 60 They do not change their lives, and it is nothing anything.”
What that means in practice is that the largest artists are very good for the transmission: the rates of around $ 0.0031 per current may seem small, but when you are Taylor Swift, the first female artist to reach 100 billion spotify currents, that is a lot of money. But smaller artists are not earning a lot of money, or any money.
If you care about music and want to support artists, the best thing you can do is transmit them. It is to buy in your bandcamp, especially in Bandcamp Fridays, when all your cash goes to the artist. It is to buy your merchandise. And above all, it is going to your shows.
All these provide real money more or less directly to artists, so it helps make sure they can continue to provide new music in the future. There is no guarantee of that through transmission alone.
If you love a band, not just transmit it. Go see them.
