from Hacker News

Music streaming payouts comparison

by bartoszhernas on 8/30/21, 7:59 AM with 61 comments

  • by pedrocr on 8/30/21, 8:35 AM

    >Of all the money Spotify receives, 70 percent goes to the right holders.

    So Spotify only takes a 30% cut, that seems reasonable. Could be lower with more competition but it seems they have a lead over other services.

    >How does that work? All the money is split across all streams. But the system also concerns the share of one artist within all those streams. So let's say Drake is responsible for five percent of all streams, then five percent of all money has to go to Drake.

    And it seems like it's proportional to the usage.

    >Is it unfair?

    >Of course, that's okay if you enjoy listening to Drake. But what if you never do? Then it's actually a bit weird since your money goes to Drake while you never listen to his music. That's why some artists think that you should only pay for the artists you actually stream. And not that everything is lumped together and then distributed.

    And then this seems to try and contradict that? What's unfair here? Are they giving a bigger share to artists that are played across more users and not more streams?

  • by minxomat on 8/30/21, 8:29 AM

    Subscriber Share[1] is the solution. Envato has done it, SoundCloud is doing it. It will never arrive for large music streaming platforms. It's not the platforms' fault. It's the rights holders'.

    [1] https://medium.com/made-by-elements/subscriber-share-on-enva...

  • by jmcgough on 8/30/21, 8:35 AM

    I thought Spotify shifted away from paying per-stream after Sleepify?

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepify

  • by tiagod on 8/30/21, 8:40 AM

    >The most generous streaming platform is Napster. The online music store pays the artist $1 for every 53 streams, followed by Tidal

    >[...]

    >If you are a listener and it's vital for you to support artists, you can start using TIDAL instead of another music streaming platform

    Why TIDAL and not Napster? Weird plug

  • by czechdeveloper on 8/30/21, 8:34 AM

    Then they honestly loose money with me. I listen probably whole work day (in reality more). That is 8 hours, cca 4 minutes per song = 120 songs a day. That means they pay out about 0.5 USD per day for me. Let's say not all days, but just 25 days a month (i listen weekends too) would mean 12.5 USD paid out.

    I pay 9.99 EUR for family (11.8 USD). There are other people on my account.

  • by tick_tock_tick on 8/30/21, 8:30 AM

    That sees crazy high? I assume this is one of those things where a massive amount of subscribers barely stream anything and that's how they can justify such a large payout?
  • by zpeti on 8/30/21, 8:36 AM

    Isn't is total subscription revenue divided by number of songs played?

    How is that coming to $0.004 per stream spotifies fault? What are they supposed to do?

  • by rapht on 8/30/21, 9:20 AM

    The source of those stats is not clear enough in my opinion.

    Is the "per-stream" measure a result to try and have a comparable basis between the various actors, or is it really the only underlying factor in the calculation (beside the country which is mentionned as another factor)?

    My guess would be that services would pay per minute-stream, not per stream. Otherwise, artists that tend to have longer form would not be willing to participate (I'm a big fan of Keith Jarrett, for instance, whose solo concerts mostly consist of tracks of around 40 minutes). You could also imagine hybrid models with bounds that de-linearize certain factors.

    Looking at a very aggregate average is a recipe for erroneous conclusions...

  • by kleiba on 8/30/21, 8:33 AM

    Isn't the actual music just an ad for the real product, tours and merchandise?
  • by tibbydudeza on 8/30/21, 9:01 AM

    During heydays of CD sales in 2000's the artist/band used get $7.68 per CD.

    Merch and concerts has always been the money maker but obviously the last 2 years put paid to that.

  • by BlasDeLezo on 8/30/21, 12:50 PM

    Jack Stratton's Vulfpeck 2018 “To understand their artist payout, you need a new currency. I call it the ‘The Pity.’ There are a hundred pennies in a dollar and a hundred pitties in a penny. On a given play the artist will make about 60 pitties and that rate seems to be dropping”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB1sTH7bUQ4

  • by newobj on 8/30/21, 8:28 AM

    that much? [as in: i would have expected less. NOT as in: they deserve less]
  • by 88840-8855 on 8/30/21, 8:30 AM

    How about production cost for music? I have no figures for that but I can imagine that producing (most) music has become cheaper.

    Further, I would put the hypothesis into the room that the revenue mix has also shifted. From selling music to selling tickets, merch, etc.

    Any ideas on those two things?

  • by fundatus on 8/30/21, 9:23 AM

    The most interesting takeaway for me from this article is that Apple Music doesn't actually pay 1ct per stream unlike what is often suggested. Also that it is closer to Spotify than it is to Napster or Tidal when it comes to payouts per stream.
  • by azinman2 on 8/30/21, 8:34 AM

    Doesn’t the article seem to contradict itself in YouTube paying the most?

    I’d love to see a comparison with what artists we’re getting paid from iTunes before this streaming model.

  • by stacker8888 on 8/30/21, 8:31 AM

    Wow, YouTube is abysmal! What do we expect from a platform forged by piracy?
  • by slac on 8/30/21, 8:39 AM

    In most cases they pay the record labels and not the artists, correct?
  • by hdjjhhvvhga on 8/30/21, 10:58 AM

    A well-done advertorial of their (terribly expensive) Smart Links product.
  • by lmilcin on 8/30/21, 9:07 AM

    How ironic that Napster, of all, is paying highest rate?
  • by anoncow on 8/30/21, 8:46 AM

    How much does Spotify make per stream on an average?
  • by Shadonototro on 8/30/21, 5:08 PM

    $400k for only just 100M streams? that's a lot of money

    only people with $AAPL in their portfolio can be against this

    Playing your music in the metro doesn't automatically give you money, a stream shouldn't automatically give you money

    Music is art, you offer your art, and it's up to the person to choose to support you

    If you can't get your art to people, you can't expect people to support you

    Stream != engagement