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Spotify shafts songwriters
SONGWRITERS HAVE CLAIMED that they are being shafted by the music service Spotify.
The service, which was once hailed as the saviour of the music industry, apparently pays peanuts to songwriters according to The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). The association cites that after a million plays of a Lady Gaga song the brains behind it got a measly $167, hardly enough for Ms Gaga to pay for her considerable hairdo.
A graphic illustration of how record labels exploit the creativity of their artists, Spotify is essentially controlled by the big four music labels. This means they, for once, aren't in a position to claim the death of music due to some Internet activity. Rather it is a shameful admission, of sorts, at how shady, secretive deals result in artists getting screwed.
BASCA told the BBC that the amounts of money filtering down to the artist is "tiny", meaning that the greedy recording company executives are lining their pockets. Spotify is unwilling to reveal the deals it does, perhaps in an attempt to hide the fact that the record labels and not the artists get the lion's share of the profits.
Although most real musicians don't get into the industry for the money, few would deny them the right to a honest day's pay, especially at the expense of music company executives.
Even using a legitimate service that is controlled by all four major labels, it seems that the artists are the ones being short changed. As the users are paying for the service, that only enables the record labels to hoover up the cash before they throw a few pennies into the artists' pockets. Yet Spotify claims that as more people subscribe to the service, in turn, the more the artists will earn.
Well quite, but given that a million plays netted the artist just over 100 quid, or 0.01 pence per play, we think that most 'downloaders' would be happy to pay ten times that amount to grab a copy of the song and give the money directly to the artist. µ
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Check out gogoyoko.com for an example of how this is actually supposed to work. Artists upload their own music, sell it for whatever price they want, and they get all of the profit from the sale.
Unfortunately it's only available in Iceland and Scandinavia at the moment, but they let people in by invite every week.
DIY wins again...
If I remember correctly the artist pays for production and other costs, I have seen severall interviews with various parts of the Biz saying that the money for production is billed to the artist and once paid they get paid.
Spotify maybe old news but its yet again as per the itunes re-costing where the artist/people making the music got less and the studios kept same/more cash.
If you sign with a label you will get shafted.
But then when the labels talk to politicians they keep mentioning how people making music are losing out due to piracy not the fact they take a bigger cut.
If they played fair and told the truth I might have sympathy, but they are out dated and can't see it, take MP3 how long till they realised people wanted it.
These Lady Gaga numbers were old even the first time around, a couple of months ago.
Secondly: how much does ady Gaga earn when "Pokerface" is aired on radio, eith one million listeners? That's the relevant comparison here! Spotify isn't about buing music, it's bout listening to it -- radio style...
piracy is a good thing in the music industry, I only attend concerts and buy merchandise.... buying music is a waste of time, i play everything off my smartphone and pc. cd's have no use to me anymore, 12 tracks on one disc? waste of space.
artists should make their money from concerts, merchandise and usage rights, not the music, just shift to that business model legally, because the bus has pulled into that stop whether you want it to or not.
Hand the marketing over to the Pirates. They could do a much better job than the big labels and provide a reasonable return to the artists from advertising, global distribution and promotion.
Protect our precious digital artists from exploitation
Sack the Big Four
And bring back good music. Saving a few quid on massive production values might signal a return to good music
This isn't news at all. The record labels have always received the majority of revenue from sales because they are the ones that pay all the production and marketing costs, not the artists. If you don't understand the basics of Biz you're not qualified to even comment on the subject matter.
Music Industry - from the latin for thieving bastards.Not the people who do the work, just the parasites that live off it and control it.
Like 90% of business today it just exists to get in the way of true commerce - and democracy.
Internet Subscriber, artists and Song Writers are enemies of Music Inc Corporation!! Now I see why they are trying to sneak internet policing for music downloads into the law..they will add few “copyrighted” songs free for download to internet sharing sites and then later claim as this site and all people accessing it are illegal.. smart move!! Middleman in Music has no function these days and should go away from artist-customer way.
but they might be sticking around for a while first.
Time to burn the RCA building to the ground. A symbol of a lost dream.
I see no further purpose for them to fulfill. What about getting an agent instead? Labels are only good for publicity. You can fire your agent, but not a label you signed your life away to.