Started listening to

Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist [Audiobook]

and though its 11 hours long, its fascinating so far. Available at Amazon, or sister site.

I've only used Spotify, about twice to understand how to setup a stream on an internet radio appliance. haven't logged into that account in a decade. Interesting to understand how & why it was developed.

if you have the time, give it a listen.

https://www.amazon.com/Mood-Machine...736445345&sprefix=mood+machine,aps,985&sr=8-1

 

Why musicians are fighting against Spotify
Status: 07.12.2023, 07:30 am

music like noise or rain are currently getting just as much money as big artists. That is going to change, they are not going to get as much. Spotify hopes to curb the massive streams for these genres and thereby generate more income for real artists.

3. In the future, all songs will have to reach a minimum streaming threshold of 1,000 streams per year in order to be paid. In addition, each song must have a certain number of listeners. And that is the biggest point of discussion. Because: There are currently no such minimum thresholds.

How do musicians react to Spotify ’s plans?
Many people find the first two changes fair and reasonable. The third, the revenue model, is met with anger and outrage, particularly among smaller artists. For Cologne musician Enna, it's not even about the money, but rather the message that it conveys: " Your music is not as valuable as the music that is listened to a lot. So the symbolic thing is the problem. "


Christopher Annen is a member of the band AnnenMayKantereit

Christopher Annen is a member of the band Annenmaykantereit and chairman of the "Pro Musik" association. In an interview with WDR, he criticizes the new Spotify rules: " That has little to do with appreciation for the work. I think that's a real shame ."


Vavu from the duo "Vavunettha"

And the musician Vavunettha thought at first: " Shit. As a small artist, it's already difficult to get streaming income. That's why I thought: Let's see if I can even get over that limit. " Even though Vavunettha is now achieving these streaming numbers, she sees the danger that this change could initially deter smaller artists from even starting to make music.

Matthias Hornschuh has been working as a composer and music producer for many years, but is also an expert on the subject of GEMA and copyright. He criticizes: " The big problem is that there has been no coordination at all with the performing artists. " At the same time, like many others, he complains about the lack of transparency on the platform as to how the money is distributed.

How much does Spotify currently pay ?
Up to now, artists have received money from Spotify if their song has been played for more than 30 seconds. The musicians receive a proportional payment depending on how many streams they have had and which country they live in. 30 percent of the revenue per song goes to Spotify, the rest is distributed among the rights holders, i.e. Gema, the record companies and the artists.

The music distribution platform iGroove has calculated that musicians receive an average of 3,398 euros per 1 million streams . That corresponds to 0.0033 euros for one stream , 34 cents for 100 streams and 3.39 euros for 1,000 streams (as of December 2022). So only the really "big ones" like Taylor Swift usually earn a lot of money .

• Blog entry at iGroove: How much do I get per stream on Spotify? | more

" Spotify is the streaming service with the largest market share, but also the one that pays the worst ," says Christopher Annen of Annenmaykantereit. " I therefore think that cutting even more money on artists is the wrong approach. "

What does Spotify hope to achieve with the minimum threshold?
Spotify says it offers well over 100 million tracks. However, tens of millions of them were only streamed between 1 and 1,000 times last year, according to Spotify . On average, each track generated just $ 0.03 per month. Too little to pay out to labels and artists because the transfer is often more expensive than the payout amount itself.

• Link to Spotify blog entry | more

In the end, it's about 0.5 percent of all streamed titles. Spotify assures that it doesn't want to earn any additional money with the new model. Matthias Hornschuh is nevertheless critical of the plans and believes that Spotify is not interested in " diversity and happy coexistence in the music family ." Spotify is a venture capital-backed company that operates primarily for profit. " But, and we shouldn't lose sight of this: the people whose music is there do that too. And if they suddenly can no longer work for profit, (...) then there's a problem. "

What do the artists want?
Above all, more support. And they have several suggestions on how to narrow the financial gap between smaller and larger artists. The Cologne singer and producer Sam Sumner , for example, thinks that the idea of a new subscription model is being talked about far too little. It's called UCPS, or User Centric Payment System : " Basically, that means that you take out a subscription and only the artists you listen to get some of your money. "

Several German musicians have also started a petition calling on the streaming service Spotify to stop the planned changes to remuneration and to make the data used to calculate stream shares transparent. Among those involved are Max Mutzke, Gregor Meyle and Klee.

Their criticism: " With the announced changes, Spotify is ensuring that the gap between particularly successful musicians and smaller musicians is widening and that, above all, large acts and labels are profiting from the changes at the expense of the smaller ones: survival of the fittest , turbo capitalism at its best . "

• Link to the petition against the compensation changes at Spotify | more

Spotify 's arguments that annual billing for songs with fewer than 1,000 streams is not worthwhile are, on the one hand, self-inflicted due to the poor remuneration offer it has made itself and, on the other hand, implausible in times of successful FinTech companies such as Paypal , which make small transfers possible.

Christopher Annen therefore recommends going to a concert again, buying a record and a T-shirt on top of that. " In the end, that's the best form of support. "

Sources:
- Calculations by iGroove
- Blog entry by Spotify
- Petition on Change.org
- Analysis by MiDiA Research
- Interview with Matthias Hornschuh
- Interview with Christopher Annen
- Interview with Sam Sumner
- Interview with Vavunettha
- Interview with Enna

Source: www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/spotify-musiker-bezahlmodell-kritik-petition-100.html

 

yeah the book is kinda like that, but no pictures, cause its an audio book..