There’s a lot of hype over music services lately, especially music streaming services. The interesting thing is that the hype isn’t necessarily over the services themselves, but over the fact that this time some may actually succeed. Spotify is the prime example and the European free music streaming service has been heralded as the savior of the market and the way forward. There’s just one problem, it may save, or rather create a market for free streaming services, it may even save the music industry but the artists still aren’t getting paid.
Torrentfreak has an interesting story on how much do the actual artists make from streaming services more precisely from Spotify. Lady Gaga, one of the most popular artists on Spotify at the moment, made a whooping $167 (SEK 1150) by having her songs on the service. The sum came from the Swedish Performing Rights Society (STIM) as royalties for over one million streams of her hit song “Poker Face.”
Without knowing the exact details of her contract or the deals that the music labels have with Spotify, it can’t be used as a general example. Still, it’s safe to assume that most artists aren’t making that much more. The labels would jump at the chance to claim that this is clear proof that free streaming services aren’t working and that people need to pay subscrip… (read more)