The biggest issue these days for musicians is not necessarily what to write a song about, it’s trying to find a streaming service that doesn’t leave you wondering if you’ll ever get paid for your music.
Being a musician myself I know how the industry has changed but also that we are a long way from a workable solution so that the artist gets paid what they deserve from a streaming service.
To this end Spotify is getting sued for not paying royalties they claim they were not aware of. Rolling Stone who covered the story (check it out here) talk about how streaming services have to find a way to pay royalties for their songs or face up to 15 billion dollars in damages.
The biggest issue from all of this is that Spotify outsourced the licencing of musicians to a third party who was ill equipped to handle such a huge bit of data. Spotify’s excuse was that the music industry didn’t provide enough information on who wrote which song. Artists in general who like to get paid for their art usually know which song is theirs and how much they get, because then they can eat. So this argument seems mute, in any event Spotify, Apple music and the rest need to right the ship or pay the huge bill that is looming.
The break down of what a musician can hope to make from a month of streams is staggeringly bad. This Graph compares it to earning 1,160 a month which is about what someone would earn if they were on minimum wage in the U.S.
I got the graph off of information is beautiful dot net. Spotify again gets the title for most streams needed to make minimum wage which over 4 million streams. Pretty impressive if your Taylor Swift but not so if you’re everyone else. Obviously Spotify isn’t for an indie artist and so other options must come into focus.
Patreon is one of those that puts the ball solely in the artists hands. After setting up your page your fans can sign up to a subscription every month to get the lastest songs that you are putting out. You can also give them exclusive deals and access depending on how much they want to spend.
Soundcloud is also a great way to get your music out there into the streaming world. It is free so it’s more of a way to promote your music and to also discover new music. Soundcloud recently came out with a streaming service for 10 dollars a month and it will interesting to see if this will up their selling value.
All this will add up over time but it’s important to keep talking to your audience and they will tell you what they like and what works for them.
I am
Joseph