@Pterry Apple Music pays the artist $0.01USD per stream. Spotify pays the artist $0.0033USD per stream. Tidal pays roughly $0.10 per stream, though I have never seen an actual payout from them.
Buy records - digital download or analog/physical — direct from artists if possible. Bandcamp has been good to artists in the past but, they were recently sold off. We don’t know how that will shake out.
The real takeaway as far as I'm concerned is that we shouldn't split hairs too much over which of the other streaming service pays the most per stream.
They are all (currently) better than Spotify for the following reasons:
Spotify changed their payout system in April to only pay artists on their streams once they have a track streamed at least 1,000 times in a calendar year.
Egads. I haven't used Spotify in a quite a while. I signed up for it circa 2012 for a year, but bailed when I began to understand what a bad deal it was/is for many (read: most) musicians.
I don't currently subscribe to any big music streaming platform. I buy music.
It's disheartening to me when I talk to people about how/why Spotify is bad for musicians and they just sort of… shrug. Because they don't feel like there's an alternative.
@mibwright@KydiaMusic I subscribe to Qobuz. I believe they pay the most and their Sublime level offers significant discounts on Hi-Res purchases. #Qobuz
I have my music on Bandcamp and have never had an issue getting my money from sales. I make way more money from Bandcamp sales than I do from streaming—$0.73 for a Bandcamp sale vs. $0.003 per stream on Spotify.
@econads The artist sets the price. There’s an option to let the buyer pay more. There are limited no charge/no fee to me previews.
I have no information about Bandcamp streaming. I have the entry/no charge type account, so maybe I’m not streamed there? I get roughly 3 streams per day total across all the streamers, so it’s a good chance it’s not exclusion.
Where Bandcamp could improve is by letting me set up bundles—My Clarinet Tracks, for example—through organizing already uploaded tracks
@pomCountyIrregs
Sorry I was talking from the point of view of a customer. So if I pay extra for a track, does the artist get a fixed price & the extra, or a proportion of the total sale?
@JustChapman I listen to electronic music for which singles and remixes make it impossible to keep up with using physical media.
Bandcamp would be an option, but discovering new artists is unfortunately better for me on Spotify.
I also like listening to podcasts by the labels, it helps discover new artists.
@dustcircle@JustChapman still pays pennies regardless and they’re a big company, so they still basically proxy spotify if anything since they still contribute to the criminal industry by working with labels etc. Honestly just pirate the streaming services if you can tbh.
@cyacyacya_nide@dustcircle if I do streaming, I like there to be an option for the user to buy a track right. While Apple Music only pays $0.01USD per stream, at least the artist has a path to SOME revenue.
Pirating the stream doesn’t give any reward to the artist for their time and energy, nor any incentive to keep producing music. I do appreciate the sentiment behind it tho.
@JustChapman@dustcircle but the labels/streaming services are not exactly rewarding anyone either, so I don’t see how that makes a difference and besides, I did say buy directly from the artists esp merch/gig tickets to support them directly due to this. Never said “don’t play nothing for the artists at all” cuz I know how harmful that sentiment is.
Also theres ppl that have said on how piracy can actually increase your fanbase and popularity of content but I need to look it up.
@cyacyacya_nide@JustChapman@dustcircle
Especialy when you are poor, piracy is a way to make sure you love the art, you can pay the artist the best you can later, by buying an album directly, even if you aren't gonna listen in this form, or make donations
You don't kill the artist, you make it exist, for you and others
@Oroshimarru@JustChapman@dustcircle this this! I can’t explain this enough tbh. So many people don’t understand this esp if your poor, it deffo a way to enjoy the art that you wanna enjoy. It can also be used for ethical reasons too esp if you want to so to say, boycott an artist/streaming service. Piracy helps to spread that message to say “you need to do better, we won’t accept/allow this, until you take responsibility and change this”.
@cyacyacya_nide@Oroshimarru@JustChapman@dustcircle Piracy is stealing, plain and simple. At least if you're streaming through a legitimate service they're getting something. My preference is to purchase directly from the artist whether via digital download or CD.
@bryanruby@cyacyacya_nide@JustChapman@dustcircle
Streaming sucks if you are poor. for many peoples, piracy is the only decent way to acces art. So even with that classist thinking, piracy is a good way to know something. Then you can pick what you support
@bryanruby@JustChapman@Oroshimarru@dustcircle also streaming services/labels are stealing money from musicians/creatives on a daily basis, so it’s actually also ethical to pirate content due to this factor since legislation is not held, if your a big corporate, capitalist exec in music business. Also piracy is another good way to archive & find stuff too, esp if you can’t purchase it anymore. Laws ≠ Morality. Always purchase merch/gig tixs to support artists.
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