Just read this …

source: thetrichordist.com

 

STOP releasing NEW music to those greedy basterd(s), keep it to yourself
If every good producer would do this.....

We have a winner!

 

One of the reasons why I went into ghost producing for a fixed fee per gig. Just checked on my latest royalty sheet: 26 spotify plays of a single track there got me 0.101039952 $cent. Hell yeah!

​

 

All streaming companies/websites are plain thieves.
Stop releasing tracks that are included on these greedy bastard websites.
No matter if you produce shit music, is your music and lost time, stop selling your music cheap. These cheap fucks must learn to pay, if they want tracks.
I know, you need exposure, some fans and some likes or whatever. Go only on Youtube and/or Soundcloud. The rest are all thieves. People will find you, if you are good, you don't need 2 dollars from Spotify or Apple Music for 100,000 plays. Ask them to remove your songs from their service. Is your work, good or bad

 

@artwerkski, your on your way to your first $million.They say that the 1st six zeros are the hardest but it is a gimme to parlay it into the next 10, then the next 20 until money no longer has monetary value, instead it turning into a pure power vibe and karmic force that takes on a life of its own. Don't worry, I'll talk to the pop (entire population of the entire world, I am on a first name basis with most of them all) and watch those royalties crescendo. On a side note, my publishing company is called Catch Penny Music for good reason, gotta catch those pennies, LOL.

But seriously, it is out of control. Artists are getting completely shafted while these companies rake it in. It is not a privilege to have your work shown on these channels and sites, but it is a right to be compensated. Things must change. I would rather make a living from my art than by selling t-shirts, guitar picks and key chains with my name on them, which by the way is maybe the only way to make money these days if you are a band or musical artist. The music seems as only a way to market shit while the music itself has become secondary.

 

If the average 'song' is 3 minutes long then to listen to a single version that many times would take 1664 years...

IMHO copyright law lasts way to long. in the 1930s musical copyright was around 8 - 12 years. Nowadays McCartney/Lennon songs will not be public domain for around 200 years since the were originally released.

 

It is out of control. 110%.

how right you are my friend!

 

There are two separate pots on spotify, one for tracks played by premium members and one for tracks played by free members.

It's also a little more complex than outlined in the op, it's dependant on everyone else's plays that period as well.

You're more likely to make more money begging than from putting music or having music on spotify.

 

The funnier was that stupid "Piracy killed the music industry !" sentence.
In fact, "music industry" killed itself with a gun called "capitalist greed".

You want more fun ?
Do some math with Spotify CEO estimated net worth : US$ 400 million...

 

It would not be an issue for those majors : they have thousands and thousands songs they can recycle ad nauseum : "Elvis Presley greatest hits biggest best of #34"

and if most composers/songwriters stopped working tomorrow, it's like all the jobs in all the planet : if you ask 10 bucks for 1 hour, there will always be someone ready to do the same job, for 4 bucks only. And another one, that will only ask 1.5. And there's the desperate guy who must feed his kids, who will do it for FREE.

If 95% of people working in the music industry stop working, tomorrow, there will be the remaining 5% who will be more than happy to get paid for the job, even if it's just enough to buy a beer or 2.

pretty much everything started with the generous and beloved Apple, with their '1$' per song.
"Great, apple just announced they sold their 1billionth song"
a few months later,
"Apple just reached the 2 billion songs sold via itunes"
Etc et .

from that $1, how much did the musician receive, net? 5cts? 2cts?

Don't know how the US did , to reach that 0,00058 value... but for sure, the big majors provided all the stats, graphs, etc... along some serious whining 'ohhh, torrents, streaming, Napster, limewire, etc, will destroy our industry, and our kids will starve '.

 

What Lowery fails to point out is that all the egregiously-undercompensated songwriters and performers with songs on Spotify are financing Spotify's employees' six-figure salaries. I'd've expected Lowery to note that because he so meticulously and assiduously harps on Spotify as to have made a new career for himself out of it. He rhetorically trips over himself so badly that he takes Spotify to court over the matter of the "streaming mechanical," which makes as much sense as "Catholic rabbi" or "vegan brisket." Streaming is broadcasting, which warrants performance royalties (as with radio-play), not mechanical royalties (which is the case with sales of downloads or "physical" product). I can't tell whether he's full-of-it or just full-of-himself. His Trichordist blog is a noble effort, but if we'd all just ignore Spotify, it would go away. Lowery, however, has gone pro in calling attention to Spotify. It just doesn't add-up.

Another thing that Lowery misses in his obsessive diatribing: Spotify is Spotify; we all know it don't pay-out diddly-squat. Anyone who submits their music to Spotify is doing so (or should be, by now) in full cognizance of its being a big pyramid scheme that pays practically zilch. I only do so, and selectively, because it's (potentially) world-wide publicity for which I don't have to pay any money, myself. I'll put maybe 1/10 of my material on Spotify; whoever might like what they hear might be moved to look for more where that had come from. For me, this is judicious; for other people, maybe not. I use it for what it's worth. I have just about the same material on Soundcloud, but is anyone whining about Soundcloud's not paying any money at all per-play? Lowery's disproportionate and inaccurate railing against Spotify just seems absurd, and a bit fishy.

What Lowery is really ignoring (and maybe this is what's fishy about it, if it might be intentional) is how almost everyone involved in distributing and dealing with digital music is exploiting and ripping-off musicians. Certainly not to the extent of the traditional major-label criminal racket, but though the percentages exacted are lower, and allegedly "fairer" to "independent" musicians, the technocrats and developers running the circus now have colonized and co-opted musicians' activities, commercially, artistically, and philosophically. ITunes drains 40% from sales; Amazon and Google Play chisel circa 30%. Orfium siphons "only" 20%; Bandcamp keeps 15%, "depending." And there's that PayPal, with its fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents ("depending") with each transaction, unless direct deposit to one's bank is made instead. And there's this and that online service for for this and that aspect of musical activity. And so on.

There's this guy in Austin,Texas (where a lot of musicians play only for tips) with this new app/service that takes digital tips when audience members don't have cash or "only" have large bills, so they can't put money in the tip jar/bucket. His company charges 5% per transaction, plus PayPal fee (about 3%). That's 8% of what could and should have gone to the musicians, and there's no live-human interactive gestures of "Dudes, I love your music so much! Hey! Here's another $5 bill!" But why is this guy starting this service? Because musicians are generally too clueless of technology and technological culture to not be savvy enough to put their PayPal address on a sign by the tip jar/bucket. (Send the money as "personal," and the recipient doesn't incur the 3% fee.)

Think about that. I mean, really – think about how musician should have grabbed the Internet by the horns, in true DIY opportunism, back around the year 2000, and thereby not permitted the takeover by the techies (the "techover," if you will). "Meet the new boss – same as the old boss," just low-key and insidious about swindling and exploiting musicians.

 

Last edited: Jun 17, 2016

I never release my music to spotify. I only do iTunes.
You won't find this on spotify:
Cascades - EP

 

A great example how easy it is to spin the world your way with numbers.
The arithmetic mean of the salaries at spotify may well be $168,747. But I guarantee you that neither mode or median are $168,747.
So yeah - it may be the average of salaries, but it sure as hell is not the salary of the average spotify employee.
It's a naive fallacy and a populist generalization.

 

I would like to listen to your work but I don't do iTunes. Sorry.