TomViolenz wrote:BaronVonAbelDong wrote:
No pleasing some I guess.
The stats you refer to in the image are completely skewed, that was my point. All other kinds of income streams kick in to support someone that is able to generate 4 million listens with music that people want to play and hear.
It's getting there which most will find hard, and that part doesn't change, wether it's Spotify or iTunes or vinyl...
If you are at a position where you are getting 4 million plays on Spotify, you won't really be too worried about how much it's bringing in, it will be icing on the cake that you are already being served.
The stats are disingenuous and are taking the focus away from the fact having 4 million streams means you 'should' already be in a position that just from publishing, performance, mechanicals (if any) and other royalties you would be on enough to pay the bills and have some to spare.
Too many spoilt 'musicians' holding on to the past at the moment no? Maybe my take on it is backwards or there's something I'm missing. I'm completely open to changing opinions, as what benefits any of us can be shared. Maybe I just haven't found a piece of the puzzle that you or someone else has and will share?
Again, I would love to hear of a solution for moving forward, with the technologies we have, that ensures fair payment (whatever that is) and is still 'fair' for the 'consumer'. Do we have anything better than DIY or iTunes plus?
In the meantime I'm off to press up some more vinyl while I still can.
That's a weird way to look at it. Sure if you manage to pull in 4 million streams, the 1100 USD you get probably are just some sort of icing on your cake.
The point of that chart was to show how that compares to other means to sell your music.
Are you seriously arguing that the person who would be able to sell 150 CDs a month under the old system is in any way capable of generating 4million streams?
That's ridiculous!
So 150 people bought a CD with let's say 10 tracks.
To generate the same revenue these 150 people would need to listen to each track on Spotify 3000 times a month or 100 times a day. Does that seem like a likely scenario to you?!
Most people listen to their favorite album at most once a day. So in order for Spotify to be worth it to the artist, Spotify would have to get this indie artist 100 times more fans. Or let's be generous and say that the 150 people would keep generating on Spotify for a while, while the CD buy was a one time thing. Let's say they keep up this high rotation listening for 10 months (
sure...). That's still 10 times more fans the artist would need to get from Spotify just to stay revenue neutral.
Yeah,
right... 
Disclaimer: I rounded 4 million streams up to 4.5 million to make the math easier.
When you say weird, do you mean different to yours or something that you find peculiar?
I'm not arguing anything with you I hope. I would like to think we are sharing thoughts in order to reach some beneficial options on how to earn in this day and age.
Which is why I keep asking for any suggestion, any solution, or idea no matter how trivial, because just maybe someone will open up a door that can bring in a few coins. You gave iTunes. That's not gonna grow for the future. They are down again this quarter. We may not like it, but streaming has kicked everything to the curb and will keep growing.
You aren't giving them and keep referring to a shock value image of how many streams it takes to earn minimum wage. It's not relevant and you have pointed out some reasons why yourself.
No one should be trying to earn just from Spotify. It's additional income. It's not exclusive. You can still sell your 150 cd's AND also get revenue from streaming. I know a DnB label that are getting several thousand pounds from streaming each royalty cheque and it's now their biggest source of income. I really don't think sharing these meaningless stats that are twisted to demeaning Spotify or any other streaming helps move us forward with solutions.
I used to sell potatoes. It took 150 potatoes to fill a box. Now I am forced to sell raisins. It takes 1000 raisins to fill the same box. What do I do? I know, I'll tell everyone that unless they want potatoes again I am boycotting selling food. That way if enough of us convince people they still want potatoes we can pretend they never discovered raisins and all will be well. That would be strange no? People don't want potatoes anymore. They want raisins. Nothing can change that at the moment so it's up to us to find a way to make raisins profitable... which is what I am asking you... any ideas?
Here's one I used for a while. I set up a membership and sold all of my catalogue as WAV, for just $14.99 for the lot, forever, plus any new stuff I made. It worked. I got bored and shut the site down, but it worked. Would it now? No idea. Probably for digital dj's but who else cares about owning files anymore.
Pointing out that it's better to sell CD's for the margins than be on Spotify is something that doesn't need to be stated. It's obvious, but it's also fading into history and streaming is growing. It may stop dead for some reason, no one knows.
I'm not someone making music that thinks they have a right to be supported financially while doing so, but I am curious about any ideas. If you don't have any then that's fine. But moaning about what is happening and finding people's views disrespectful doesn't change the lay of the land.
We used to be able to earn a few thousand from every vinyl release. Not no more.
Should we force vinyl onto people and boycott everything else? We could, but that would be a bit silly, unless we were doing it out of love for the vinyl and respect for the craft. That I DO understand.
It seems to me that licensing - films/games and publishing/ppl etc are still where some pockets of income can be found but even that is getting beat down.
Anyway, I've said my bit. I have a hunch on how to make streaming viable, but cannot try it out until next year. We'll see.
Anyone that is making it work out, would be great to chat. Have a good one.
Ha... that would be slick... Facebook do it with your data and pictures so it's not completely unreasonable to wonder. Funny.