Why Spotify will fail...

[Funk]

A quick hypothetical example off the top of my head:

A CD sells for £12 retail. The retailer collects £10 minus VAT and pays the distributor the dealer price of £7. The distributor collects 20% and pays £5.60 to the label. The label pays the contracted artist a 20% royalty of £1.40 on the dealer price of £7, but it's an old deal with a packaging deduction of 15% for CD format, so that's £1.19. Of the £5.60 the label collects it will have to pay 8.5% mechanical royalties (47p) to the publisher and say £1.20 for manufacturing, so it's left with £2.74. This assumes it's a catalogue release with no recoupments for recording, mastering, promotion etc.

So in summary:
£1.19 to the artists
£2.74 to the label
£0.47 to the publisher (50-75% of which flows to writers)

This would be quite typical but deals can differ significantly.

I can guarantee you that David Byrne has made a handsome living from his career.

The REALLY angering part of this is that the Government makes more money from the sale than any other party - for doing absolutely nothing.

 

[hockman]

A quick hypothetical example off the top of my head:

A CD sells for £12 retail. The retailer collects £10 minus VAT and pays the distributor the dealer price of £7. The distributor collects 20% and pays £5.60 to the label. The label pays the contracted artist a 20% royalty of £1.40 on the dealer price of £7, but it's an old deal with a packaging deduction of 15% for CD format, so that's £1.19. Of the £5.60 the label collects it will have to pay 8.5% mechanical royalties (47p) to the publisher and say £1.20 for manufacturing, so it's left with £2.74. This assumes it's a catalogue release with no recoupments for recording, mastering, promotion etc.

So in summary:
£1.19 to the artists
£2.74 to the label
£0.47 to the publisher (50-75% of which flows to writers)

This would be quite typical but deals can differ significantly.

I can guarantee you that David Byrne has made a handsome living from his career.

Your figures aren't far off.

I am not arguing that he didn't make good money and neither is he. He's just explaining that for a lot of artists (other than the biggest names), it is hard to make a living without actively performing and touring. Downloads, streaming and album sales aren't enough.

 

[kjb]

I guess there’s a reason Spotify push out these very atypical stories

Swedish composer becomes Spotify’s most-famous musician you’ve never heard of

Johan Röhr’s 2,700 songs have been streamed 15bn times and have more plays than Britney Spears or Abba

www.theguardian.com

 

[Woodface]

Not proper music fans IMO.

Not true at all. What about people who go to loads of gigs or just don’t have the space for a collection? This is just elitism, people can legitimately enjoy music on multiple levels.

So people on here with top end streaming systems are not proper music fans either?

 

[Woodface]

The REALLY angering part of this is that the Government makes more money from the sale than any other party - for doing absolutely nothing.

It called tax. A rather daft observation.

 

[Funk]

It called tax. A rather daft observation.

 

[farfromthesun]

Not true at all.

You mean you don't agree - all good.

 

[Chris Metcalf]

I read in the news yesterday that Queen Joni has had to admit defeat and has joined Neil Young in returning her catalogue to Spotify.