Spotify, Streaming Services, Royalties (or lack thereof)

[David Houck]

This being a music-centered community, we from time to time talk about the music industry; so I thought some of you might find this of interest.

Taylor Swift ends Spotify boycott.

While I am not familiar with her music, I am familiar with her boycott of Spotify and other streaming services over what she sees as inadequate royalties.  My recollection (it's been a few years) is that her concern was especially about less successful artists who were getting very little in the way of royalties from the services.

The cited article is short on detail; I would imagine somewhere out here on the web is an article with much more detail, perhaps discussing any changes in royalties paid by these services since the time her boycott began.

I'm not a professional nor do I have any recordings on the streaming services or otherwise distributed, but it does seem to me as an interested observer that the nature of the business has changed from one of touring to support the album, to one of giving away the songs to support the touring.  But I really don't know; I'm just guessing here.

I also don't use any of the streaming services.  I very rarely have background music on, and never listen to music when I'm driving or working or otherwise focused on something.  So I really don't know much about the services from a customer's point of view either.

But some of you are professionals and/or do have recordings released; and I imagine some of you subscribe to the services as well.  So I thought it worth revisiting this subject in light of Taylor Swift's decision to end her boycott.  Has anything actually changed?

[rv_bass]

It looks like Spotify pays $0.004 per stream:

http://royaltycalc.com/
 
And it looks like Spotify is taking steps to improve their ability to identify rights owners and royalty recipients, which should help with calculating royalties due, especially for smaller artists:

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/27/spotify-blockchain-pay-more-royalties/

Related article:

http://musically.com/2017/01/17/new-figures-show-per-stream-payouts-from-spotify-apple-music-youtube-and-more/

This might have something to do with Taylor Swift's decision:


"
Spotify, which operates both free and paid tiers, had for years staunchly refused requests from record labels and artists — including, apparently, Ms. Swift — to restrict music to its paid levels, which pay higher royalties. But this year, in a renegotiation with the Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music conglomerate, Spotify agreed to let labels put new music only on the paid tier for limited periods, in exchange for lower royalty rates."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/arts/music/taylor-swift-returns-streaming-services-spotify.html?_r=0

[David Houck]

Thanks for these links.  I now have a little better understanding of where the music industry is.