With paltry streaming royalties and a cost-of-touring crisis, it’s harder than ever to make money as a musician. Claudia Cockerell on the household names who are taking up side hustles, and what it says about the state of the music industry
Per stream can be very misleading because if Apple pays double per stream but the song gets double the streams on Spotify the payout is exactly the same. There’s an argument to be made that if you got as many streams on Apple as you do on Spotify you’d make more money but let’s be real, if Apple got as many streams as Spotify their per stream price would also be closer to what Spotify pays. These companies aren’t paying extra out of kindness. Their per stream pricing is higher because they know they (on average) won’t get Spotify number of streams. They can undercut Spotify to make themselves look better while most likely paying out roughly as much (or maybe even less than) what Spotify pays out.
You know, I’m generally with you there, but Tidal recently lowered the price of its Hi-Fi tier to match apple music’s price while Spotify still hasn’t made good on their lossless promise.
I just don’t get the appeal of Spotify aside from sunk cost. The podcast spam is enough for me.
Do they actually pay less or do they pay less per stream? Because those two things are not the same.
Good question. I’m speaking per stream, not sure overall.
Per stream can be very misleading because if Apple pays double per stream but the song gets double the streams on Spotify the payout is exactly the same. There’s an argument to be made that if you got as many streams on Apple as you do on Spotify you’d make more money but let’s be real, if Apple got as many streams as Spotify their per stream price would also be closer to what Spotify pays. These companies aren’t paying extra out of kindness. Their per stream pricing is higher because they know they (on average) won’t get Spotify number of streams. They can undercut Spotify to make themselves look better while most likely paying out roughly as much (or maybe even less than) what Spotify pays out.
You know, I’m generally with you there, but Tidal recently lowered the price of its Hi-Fi tier to match apple music’s price while Spotify still hasn’t made good on their lossless promise.
I just don’t get the appeal of Spotify aside from sunk cost. The podcast spam is enough for me.