this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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What Spotify does affects the entire music market. Why should you worry about their income? Because Spotify's strategy makes it harder and harder for musicians to have the income to keep on making music. If you care about having music to listen to, you should care about this. Also, Spotify and music is just one example of the overall exploitation of workers. If you don't stand for artists when it's their livelihood at stake, why should anyone stand up for your rights when it's your livelihood at stake?
Buy concert tickets if you want to support musicians, streaming income doesn't really factor into it afaik.
That's the point, though. Spotify is rigged specifically so that they don't have to pay small artists. Spotify splits the pot with the Big Three and everyone else can go fuck themselves. I would much rather my monthly payment go toward the artists I actually listen to. Instead, most of a monthly payment goes to the most played artists-- which Spotify rigs to be whoever nets them the most money (low royalty artists, high dividends for Spotify and the Big Three who are highly invested in it)
I think Tidal scores the best among music streaming services in terms of compensating artists. I switched from Spotify to Tidal several months ago and have no regrets
It's estimated that Tidal pays $0.013 per stream, Spotify pays $0.003 - $0.005, and Apple pays $0.01 per stream.
https://dittomusic.com/en/blog/how-much-does-tidal-pay-per-stream/
I doubt it pays much better, the issue might be partially the distribution, but mainly that they are too cheap.
While it isn’t a lot more in general it is still about three times of Spotify. It also takes into consideration which artists you actually stream afaik, so that your money goes more towards those.
Look like Tidal pays 4x more than Spotify on average. For small artists, it's likely hundreds of times more.
Even concerts barely break even for artists after all expenses. Right now, merch and physical album sales are the best way (other than directly giving money) to support your favorite artists. I don’t buy physical albums because they just become clutter at home, so I make it a point to buy merch when I go to a concert.
Buying digital albums works just as well. No need to go physical.
Does Spotify affect the music market or does the music market affect Spotify’s mode of operations? Can Spotify really exist in an ecosystem where artists are fairly represented and paid equally? Look at Bandcamp, it’s been trashed and deserted because the companies that have taken advantage of it found the model unprofitable by their estimates.
There of course are many things Spotify could do, but unfortunately the momentum in the music industry is towards profit and not actual talent or social consciousness. Spotify is owned by money makers, not individuals with true appreciation for the art of music.
All we know is the companies weren’t able to extract what they wanted out of band camp, not that its model wasn’t working or couldn’t work.
As I said, by their estimates. I do not endorse the idiocy that compels this greed and ignorance towards true art. I myself am a musician and by no means am I popular or thriving on my art. I can’t be upset with Spotify because it’s still a better system than hoping any physical media I release will make it into the hands of others, in a music industry that has generally discouraged people from listening to underground artists. With digital media, Bandcamp is probably one of the best platforms for artists.
Not op but I would not care much. Sure things could be better but it's not my problem. There is enough shit to worry about and music (or Spotify) is nowhere near the top half.
Same argument about standing up to someone's livelihood being at stake can be said literally about everything. I got a limited amount of fucks to give. I'm happy if people want to fight this stuff and make music better for everyone but I ain't part of that crew.
I dunno, I feel like its not that big of a deal to not pay spotify $15 a month
I am a musician and I deserve to make a living just like you.
Yeah, agreed and every person can only do so much. I like to think that it's all the same fight, it's the fight against the stranglehold that the rich have on the rest of us.