I just removed all my music from Spotify and the other streaming services

darenager · 2023-12-28T12:12:05.400Z

Couple of other points:

Likening Spotify to a jukebox or radio (from a royalties perspective) isn’t equivalent, mechanical and broadcast royalties are orders of magnitude greater than streaming royalties.

Yes streaming will potentially expose your music to a wider audience, along with the millions of other tracks vying for the listener’s attention, to believe that you can make it big or even have a reasonable income from streaming is at best wishful thinking. The numbers are against you at multiple levels.

The vast majority of streaming subscribers have zero interest in buying your music or going to your gig, because the vast majority of people don’t either, nothing changes that.

Building a following other than on a streaming service, for example via bandcamp, physical media, gigging, or some other more tangible method might take more effort but might at least potentially gain you some actual fans.

There is nothing to stop anyone from exploiting their own music in any way they see fit, including putting it on streaming services if they want to. I don’t care what others do, I only talk about my own views WRT to my music.

Back in the day music was pirated, bootlegged, broadcast illegally, taped, Napster etc etc. Of course the artists did not get paid for any of this, however the distinctions to make are the scale and the legality.

I am all for curation, but I think that too wide a pool makes useful curation impractical - which is exactly the reason why I don’t have 50gb sample library etc. I don’t trust some algorithm to curate on my behalf either.

Anyway, as ever just my opinions.

g3o2 · 2023-12-28T14:22:30.030Z

ignatius:

i’d rather have the 50-100 fans who are into it than give distrokid $49 or whatever it is…

It looks like this might be the kind of fanbase that we can hope for anyway, at least for as long as we want to enjoy our artistic freedom. There is so much music offered out there that it is highly challenging, if not impossible, to stand out.

A constant in the music distribution business is that it has always been a tough one. As soon as you want to make money, everyone involved will try to get a share of your gross sales proceeds and, of course, no one wants to hear about your expenses.

ignatius · 2023-12-28T16:32:40.690Z

this sounds like a copout. “things have always been bad so why expect things to be different?” well… that’s a half truth… and things aren’t bad they’re noticeably worse for a lot of working musicians.

and doing it ‘for the exposure’ is just an insult. the problem isn’t streaming itself… it’s how the system is structured and how it came to life. it’s how the resource it holds sway over is exploited for the gain of a handful of people… how it was birthed with venture capital in the same old silicon valley tech bro kind of way. high stock valuation, extraction of billions from the stock market into the hands of the people who made the tech… not the people who created the resource (the music) that holds all the value.

it’s just another in a long line of scams that use the shitty system to make a handful of people very wealthy

Dayflight · 2023-12-28T17:40:44.758Z

Yes, as a “non” profi without extreme good connections and promotion you will not have any success in todays music business. Make a perfect track (in your opinion) and upload it to Soundcloud, Spotify, Bandcamp, Youtube,…(even with a expensive Abo) you get some likes and perhaps some cents and nice comments. Taylor Swift or similar persons are industry driven with a big backbone. Not reachable for 99,9999991% of all people in the world. Make music for yourself and enjoy it. But earn your money elsewere.

ViolentMeals · 2023-12-28T20:36:45.629Z

ignatius:

it’s just another in a long line of scams that use the shitty system to make a handful of people very wealthy

Amen, brother.

ignatius · 2023-12-28T22:57:47.452Z

yeah of course. i mean… i never banked on making a living with my own music but also don’t want to participate in a shitty system if i don’t have to. it’s a bummer that so many people are hooked on music streaming which is not rewarding at all for artists in most cases.

if the veil could be lifted and people shown the truth of how things work… would they even care? or, would it get lumped into those many things people think they’re powerless to do anything about?

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traxx.space · 2023-12-29T00:45:46.744Z

Another kick in the nuts from Spotify is that they will require a minimum number of unique listeners to even count to that 1,000 minimum play number. They won’t publish what that number is but I’d assume it’s 500+ based on the info that has been shared so far. It’s even bleaker for small artists. Check out this math…

You have 400 super fans who listen to your 10 song album at least once a month. That’s 48,000 plays per year. And let’s assume those super fans all pay for Premium which pays out at the highest royalty rate. That’s $240 in royalties you would have been paid in 2023 and previous but now you’ll get nothing. Now let’s say you have 4 albums and you get the same kind of streaming activity. Now that’s close to $1,000 you’ll never see.

They are setting the bar higher than 1,000 streams per track. Hell, it could be 1,000 unique listeners before they pay out for all we know. It’s just shitty and is going to have a much larger impact than the $40m they initially claimed. Just wait, you will see all the news stories about artists making more in royalties in 2024 than ever before.

reeloy · 2024-03-17T18:06:54.275Z

…i start to think, it’s a good decision…

Heyes · 2024-03-17T20:07:38.948Z

This video is a mandatory watch. Period.

BlankFlag · 2024-03-17T20:28:28.238Z

Bleak.

DimensionsTomorrow · 2024-03-17T23:39:54.182Z

This thread made me want to revisit Steve Albini’s classic essay on the music industry from 1993. Worth a read if you’ve never read it.

The Baffler – 30 Dec 93

The Problem with Music | Steve Albini

How record labels use A&R flaks and impenetrable contracts to screw artists while raking in millions

It was definitely never easy to make it in the industry (“a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit”). Not just hard for musicians either, independent record stores, indie labels. That said, this is a really good watch for some positive indie vibes:

captain8 · 2024-05-03T23:14:42.028Z

Leonsarmiento · 2024-05-15T11:44:24.420Z

What do you think about AI generated music? General Discussion

“AI generated music is my favorite music.” said no one ever, yet, Spotify feed AI music by the millions of plays. Behold Mr. Röhr: [Ted Gioia on AI's Threat To Music] This is fascinanting.

victorcampos · 2024-05-15T14:10:58.918Z

Can’t find the artist and songs reported on the video as fraudulent, does anyone have a link to the artist page of “Titans” (the ripoff “artist” being denounced in there)?

Inakito · 2024-05-15T15:22:01.147Z

A great book to read regarding this matter could be “Music marketing for the DIY Musician”

DJCHEMIE · 2024-05-15T20:23:11.283Z

They say it may be a retaliation for this:

Spotify added audiobooks into its premium, family and duo plans, and the company claims that the move now qualifies them as a bundle, which pays a discounted royalty rate from normal standalone subscriptions, given Spotify now has to pay for books and music from the same subscription price.

Billboard – 15 May 24

Spotify Receives Cease and Desist From Music Publishers for Alleged...

NMPA sends Spotify a cease and desist letter over its alleged use of unlicensed lyrics and video on its service. Read the full letter from publishers.

ringokidf · 2024-06-13T20:01:19.793Z

So I removed all my music through my digital distribution(Distrokid) around 3 weeks ago.
I got a confirmation and I thought that all was good.
But today I got an email from DistroKid(Bot) telling me that Spotify has removed my music due to me breaking the rules by using some kind of paid service to get my stream numbers up.

I never used those kind of services or tricks and my stream count will proof that so it pissed me off and I replied to Distrokid that it´s false accusation and I got offended by this.

1 1/2 hour later I get the same email again, telling me that Spotify has kicked me off due to me breaking the ruels.
It´s clearly a bot sending these mails out and it will take a long time before my first reply lands in an mailbox of a real person but I was wondering if any of you have had these emails lately/after leaving Spotify?

syntheticart · 2024-06-13T23:37:51.552Z

I didn’t remove any music first, but I got that email a week ago about one of my older albums on Spotify. I have never used promotional services and my stream counts make that embarrassingly obvious. Exchanged a few emails with distrokid support and it was a complete waste of time, just cut and paste responses to an obviously ridiculous situation. Never had respect for Spotify but lost any I had for distrokid, they were useless.

ringokidf · 2024-06-14T04:55:20.153Z

Yes, I’m with you on this.

I replied to the first mail and the 2nd but as now they wrote me the same BS message 7 times over night.

Karhide · 2024-06-14T06:29:30.821Z

I had the same earlier this year and Distrokid pulled all my releases since 2017. Total pain and never got a real response from them. I never used any service for artificial streams but did have one album I released last year start to get lots of plays. Now I’m back to square one…