Why I will not give money to streaming platforms

[PhilofCas]

Here’s where all the money goes. (Link)
https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/how-musicians-make-money-or-dont-at-all-in-2018-706745/
Also, just done a quick Google, Spotify has had sales of approx. $30 billion in the last 10 years and @claire.foxx had pointed out they’ve made a loss of $2.7 billion in same period, appears there’s an awful lot of money not going to the artists!

(There’s circa $30 billion global revenue per year. (just streaming)).

 

[claire.foxx]

Generally radio is lower revenues than streaming (source) but it translates to direct download sales more readily.

 

[awkwardbydesign]

Income. It has never posted an annual net profit. In fact, its cumulative net losses in the past 10 years are about €2.62 to $2.8bn. (source)

Thanks.

 

[hockman]

According to David Byrne in his great book, How Music Works, making a living from music has come full circle for performers. Most of their livelihood now has to come from live concerts and touring (like the musicians of an earlier era, before the emergence of recording) and perhaps whatever else they may be able to sell during performances (e.g. albums, T-shirts etc). Even for someone as successful as Byrne, his income from streaming is minuscule. He is lucky to have some song-writing royalties but this is not the case for most musicians.

The pandemic must be incredibly tough on musicians given that they aren't able to perform live much any more.

 

[tiggers]

Let's be brutally honest here. Streaming companies and download operations etc. all operate on what people are prepared to pay... raise their prices too much and people will simply acquire their music illegally. This does not exonerate those companies from blame, but it is all driven by most people's lack of ability to value the creative arts.

It's the same for imagery, video or whatever. In a former life I was a professional sports photographer and was lucky enough to make some money for a few years from it, but when my images started popping up illegally on the net and I tried to go after said organisations/individuals I was repeatedly told to 'embrace the new world' where it was either up to me to stop people taking my images, and if I couldn't then it was my problem, or find a way to make money from having these thieves advertise my work for me (what a joke that excuse is) .... I did indeed embrace the new world.. I stopped being a photographer as if people aren't going to appreciate the work that goes into taking a decent picture they can go and f**k themselves!

It's one of the reasons I still buy vinyl and CDs and don't really do streaming, while it's not a perfect model in terms of artist remuneration, it's a damn sight better than streaming/downloads. It's also why I don't moan about the cost of gigs the way some do.... it's now really the only way for artists to make money.

 

[claire.foxx]

These days if you’re unlucky enough to have a record label sniffing around your ass looking for you to sign, modern recording/distro contracts also stipulate they want a sizeable portion of ticket stubs and merch sales as well. Steve Albini’s “The problem with music” is often cited and bears repeating.

If, as a musician, you so much as want to fart, someone out there expects a kickback; the whole parasitic edifice built is built on gatekeeping, bribery & theft.

 

[Heckyman]

Same with takeaways, Just Eat is the gatekeeper able to extract almost all of the profit from these small businesses. Simply because for the majority of people it’s more convenient to do a few clicks on an app than to keep a few menus handy and make a phone call direct to the establishment. Just Eat have a team of reps whose primary task is to intimidate the takeaways into not undercutting the Just Eat prices for direct customers.

This thread (and some others like it) has made me think more about the effects of streaming on musicians. I’ve started buying downloads even though they sound no better than the streamed files and are more hassle to store and manage.