Both artists and their loyal listeners have expressed disdain about artist payouts (or lack thereof) – but why are streaming services like Spot

Why Does Spotify Pay So Little? [An Analysis]

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2021-06-04 19:00:05

Both artists and their loyal listeners have expressed disdain about artist payouts (or lack thereof) – but why are streaming services like Spotify, who are seemingly so successful, paying the artists that attract listeners so little? Jack Stratton tries to calculate an answer.

Take a single stream of "The Birdwatcher" in March 2014. Terry, the user, lives in the US and pays $9.99/month for Spotify. I, the artist, receive a total of $0.00786 over the next nine months:

Terry is below average. In 2014 he averaged 350 streams per month. If his subscription money only went to artists he listened to, it would’ve been $0.02 per stream.

Normal listeners are subsidizing yoga studios that play Spotify all day. Catalog artists have to compete with Top 40 for the same pot of money. If someone likes Vulfpeck and Daft Punk on iTunes, they spend a dollar on Vulfpeck and a dollar on Daft Punk.

The individual model is a step forward for subscription, but Daniel Ek reminds us there’s simply not much money in music (Charlie Rose introduces Ek as being worth $300M).