New Model Army at Spotify

[Rusco]

Ok, now as I've used Spotify for one year, I thought there should be more visibility to things concerning NMA at Spotify. Of course at first it depends a lot about how much the band wants to pay attention to that media. It's easy to browse and look for things when you've get used with Spotify, but some things become more understandable only later on.

I know some of the people don't like Spotify so much, so I try to keep this short. (I just wish that NMA could get the best support and profit from those who already use Spotify.)

So, there is the artist page. https://open.spotify.com/artist/7n1EM42Fseebd9H2p8eWWS?si=qICFaXI9TyeWvm-gMd6QPg

There are podcasts. One of them concerns f.e an interview with JS. It's a series 'bout photographing rockstars by a professional artist/photographer Matthias Hornbauer called "How to become a rockstar photographer". Here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1S9yrZF4tJ9DfZ0keSBy52?si=LSmbuukWSS2-jBFvnnBWtw

Another interview by Eric Zimmer called "The One you feed":
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Fg9Ier4XWiXLv8ZbHNBGq?si=bhzBexXrQe-vRFyRvMHj2g

There are couple of playlists:

https://open.spotify.com/user/billybob811/playlist/2q2PkulHGnnHdi3xnDdf8X?si=1nVMkNkNQR6phgtEAzZbpA

And

https://open.spotify.com/user/russellwsmith/playlist/69lq1Wqj16ZJsfCJr9G8JP?si=-0cqvdtPS8qiB4v5H-i8eg

The playlists work the best if you introduce it at a music chat in Spotify Community website. That way most of the artists and DJ's use to promote their stuff and they"ll get followers and listens.

[8]

There are podcasts. One of them concerns f.e an interview with JS. It's a series 'bout photographing rockstars by a professional artist/photographer Matthias Hornbauer called "How to become a rockstar photographer".
Here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1S9yrZF4tJ9DfZ0keSBy52?si=LSmbuukWSS2-jBFvnnBWtw

Another interview by Eric Zimmer called "The One you feed":
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Fg9Ier4XWiXLv8ZbHNBGq?si=bhzBexXrQe-vRFyRvMHj2g

I think someone uploaded both of these to youtube.  If you ever know of others, Rusco, I hope you'll post again... I love interviews!  Never ever find listening to them boring, either.   

[Master Ray]

I have to admit, I don't use Spotify because of the dreadfully low rate that the artists are paid.  I'm happy to be corrected on this one but by using one of the available royalty calculators, it seems that if a tune gets streamed on Spotify 10,000 times, the band gets $40...

Fair enough to those who use it (and, yes, I appreciate that people who hear NMA tunes on Spotify MIGHT go on to buy a 'proper' album or see them live... but then again, they might just carry on using Spotify!) but I'll stick with buying physical copies of stuff... just my opinion, no disrespect to anyone using sites like this.   

[Rusco]

Good points there MR. I also hope we could correct that. Let's see:

I have to admit, I don't use Spotify because of the dreadfully low rate that the artists are paid.  I'm happy to be corrected on this one but by using one of the available royalty calculators, it seems that if a tune gets streamed on Spotify 10,000 times, the band gets $40...

According to friends at my work (who have a poorly known band), they told me they have about 300 followers nowadays at Spotify who listen to their stuff. And - surprise is here: they'll get paid about 100 euros per month... That sounds a way different.

I think it's changed finally over? I can also recall Prince or Lenny Kravitz stating years ago how low they got paid by Spotify. 70 dollars or something. But I don't believe it's reality anymore after all these years. Why would increasing amount of bands put their stuff more and more there if they gain nothing...

I just tried to find some kind of a proof about the change, and here at Digital Music News says something like this: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/10/13/godigital-spotify-youtube-pay/

Forbes taking a more neutral view: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2017/07/27/what-do-the-major-streaming-services-pay-per-stream/#c79c0b9448cb

"While streaming has completely taken over the music industry, that doesn’t mean all is going well for everyone involved. In fact, nobody seems to be making quite enough money from the growing format, and almost all of the businesses trying to survive are losing incredible amounts of cash. It’s a rough game to be in, and it can be especially difficult for up-and-coming musicians trying to making a living off of their art.

The discussion of how much each service pays per stream is a tricky one for a number of reasons. Many companies won’t release exact numbers and several artists have come forward to share their payouts, which sometimes conflict with what others have stated—but no matter the company or the reason, every firm has an extremely low payout scale that only adds up to a liveable wage if the artist or band is attracting some serious attention."

[...]

"What do the major streaming services pay per stream:


Napster - $0.0167

Tidal - $0.0110

Apple Music - $0.0064

Google Play - $0.0059

Deezer - $0.0056

Spotify - $0.0038

Pandora - $0.0011

YouTube - $0.0006"

Ok. So it looks like YouTube pays less than Spotify nowadays. I got fed up with YouTube as it's turned more like something else than a user friendly service. You can see tracks there, but often you can't listen to them due to some provincional country codes/restrictions or something and there's a text saying something like "unfortunately the track's no more in use" or "not useable" etc. Full albums are more a rarity nowadays as the songs are scattered and you'll get adds with every track.

What comes to good old purchase of the albums, it's for sure the best way to support a band. I don't know about others, but I'm a music heavy user and buy the albums that I like although I listen to them too at Spotify or elsewhere. But I need the album that I'd say I have it. 

[8]

[...]What do the major streaming services pay per stream:

Napster - $0.0167
Tidal - $0.0110
Apple Music - $0.0064
Google Play - $0.0059
Deezer - $0.0056
Spotify - $0.0038
Pandora - $0.0011
YouTube - $0.0006

Those are all disgusting figures!    How do we get around this, to help out the artists we love so much?

When I go to gigs, I make it a point to buy, whatever I'm looking to buy, directly from the artist(s).  I also make a conscious effort to buy directly from the artist(s) own online shop(s).  Should probably not say this, but last year I bought several tickets to (non-NMA) shows... but only went to one of them.      Not sure what's going on with me there, but hopefully those different artist(s) I wanted to see, still got their money.

Must confess, I am a bit hooked on Youtube.  There's just so much there, not just music.  I go there to; learn stuff, like cooking, baking, playing an instrument, making jewellery, sewing, gardening, how to use a computer program, how to fix things, etc. etc. etc. (if you can think of it, it's probably already there); to watch regular Joes and Janes review some product I'm looking to purchase; to watch snippets of gigs I was either too far way to attend OR that happened before I was born; to watch interview clips from before my time OR that took place in other countries... -  basically, I go there to see what I missed and to learn new things.   

[Rusco]

To think that Napster was considered a bad bad company that steals the music, but they actually have the best payment. 

[Rusco]

According to friends at my work (who have a poorly known band), they told me they have about 300 followers nowadays at Spotify who listen to their stuff. And - surprise is here: they'll get paid about 100 euros per month... That sounds a way different.

I asked this again today and they explained the difference of payments in Spotify this way:

Person A] listens to (eh let's say  ) a Beatles track 100 times. They get paid 100 x 0,0038$. Then two different persons B] and C] listen to the same Beatles track 50 times both. The result is different. Payment is not anymore  0.0038$ per song because there are more other listeners than just person A]. That way it's limited so that one guy alone couldn't increase the payment more with his own hundreds of listens. The amount of people listening to the track matters.

[Amandistan]

I use it often. I like it. I do not have a CD player at all so depend on such services to listen to music. I support artists not liking this service but it is legal and not the same as illegal downloads. The price is what appeals to people and on-demand music. I pay for my subscription monthly , it is not free. The free service sucks.  I don't have a massive bit of space and money and i really like music. I find it of great comfort and kind of need that.  I would not have the funds to buy each album of every artist i liked. Spotify also allows you to discover new music. I have found probably 1,000 new artists using streaming services.  That said, I do buy all NMA albums and many artist i stream have a fortune compared to me.  Why should the listener feel guilty?  It is someone in higher power choosing not to pay the artist not a 16 year old kid paying for spotify premium.  I don't agree with the low pay much either.

[Rusco]

I completely agree with you, Amandistan. I also have a premium account and pay per month, but I also use it nearly everyday, create playlists etc. Actually with Spotify I've started to buy more albums by ordering them from shops as the service provides me an excellent way to figure out cronological history of releases from many bands.

The band from my friends earn about 84£ UK pounds per month with (only) 320 fans that stream their music around the globe. I don't claim it's very much, but not very bad either. 

[frankoschenko]

This thread made me thinking - I once digitalized all my albums for listening to them on the iPod as well as in the car and nowadays I also use the phone to stream them to my Wifi speakers in bathroom and kitchen. Those speakers are also connected to a Spotify premium account. So wouldn´t it be advantageous for NMA (and all other artists I listen to) if I´d do that streaming via Spotify instead of my own copies so they could earn (if you can call these payments that) again?