We have instant access to the complete history of recorded music in our pocket. I know that is such a natural part of living these days, but it’s worth noticing how miraculous that is. What’s even crazier is services like Spotify, YouTube, and Pandora give you this power for free! If you’ve ever been using one of these services and thought “this seems to good to be true”… you’re right. Here’s a video I put together to visualize just how ridiculous the streaming model is from an artist perspective. You can skip to 1:44 if you just want the numbers.
The Big Take Away
It cannot be repeated enough: unlimited free access to ad-supported on-demand music is terrible for artists. This is the model Spotify, YouTube, and Pandora all use. Unfortunately, the ad money just doesn’t come close to covering the lost royalty revenues.
It’s also important to remember these numbers (thanks Thrichordist!) are just aggregates. Incredibly, no service currently offers a set rate per stream. Instead, the total revenue is summed in a big pot. Then, each artist is paid a portion of the pot equal to their percentage of the total streams. So if all Spotify users listened to 50 extra songs every day the pot wouldn’t get any bigger, and it wouldn’t actually create any additional revenue for artists. In fact, the pay per stream would actually go down. The only way to make the pot bigger is to get more people to actually pay for the service.
What Can Listeners Do To Better Support Artists?
Pay for the service you use. The general rate across the board is $10 a month. That’s a killer deal! You’re essentially getting access to the entire history of recorded music for the same price of two trips to Starbucks.
More specifically, pay for Tidal. Paying for Spotify Premium is certainly better than using it for free. Unfortunately, you’re still supporting a service that hoards a huge percentage of the industry by offering unlimited free access to music. The good news is there are other services that offer an even better experience for the same price. I can’t recommend Tidal enough. They have the same base cost of $10 and all the same user features as Spotify (sharable playlists, year in review stats, etc.). Plus they have the largest selection, the best sound quality, complete album credits, they’re run by artists, and they’re paying the most per stream right now.
Also buy one album a month on Bandcamp. I like to think of streaming services as a musical test drive – a way out of the old “you buy a record for $10 and there’s only one good track on it” problem. If you find something you really connect with (especially if that artist doesn’t have tens of millions of streams) please consider buying it directly from them. You’d have to stream a 10 song album 120 times on Spotify to generate the same amount of revenue as buying it for $5 on Bandcamp.
What Can Artists Do To Help Ourselves?
Share this video/post! Most musicians realize the streaming industry doesn’t work for artists. The problem is most listeners have no idea. I have to believe that if enough people saw this, and knew how unethical Spotify and YouTube are, they’d switch to a more humane service like Tidal.
Get informed. It’s one thing to assume Spotify is ripping off artists. It’s a whole ‘nother thing to actually know the numbers. Luckily, The Trichordist blog has a huge trove of practical data, licensing, and policy knowledge prepared for us.
Window your music. Release your album exclusively on Bandcamp for a few months before putting it on streaming services. Until Covid-19 this is how the movie industry worked: you saw a film in theaters, and then eventually you could stream it on Netflix. It’s worth noting that none of the major video streaming services offer an unlimited free version like Spotify does.
So…
Music streaming is here to stay, but it’s in need of major improvements. The best way we can make those changes happen is with our wallets. Dump Spotify.
This post is in no way sponsored by Tidal, or anyone else. I’m just trying to support the streaming service that currently supports artists the most.