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Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

stevebenjamins.com

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Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#51
post #33
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not Spotify's responsibility to make sure indie artists are getting paid.

Well, it is definitely in Spotify's interest to keep as many quality artists as possible on Spotify, and that probably involves paying them.

I heard a rumour once that artists did not actually need to eat.

/s

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#52
post #34

Spotify's discovery playlist is a double edged sword. My account is permanently screwed because I decided to listen to a lot of rain sounds when going to sleep for a few months while I had a puppy. Now ALL I get for recommendations are calm sounds. I don't actually listen to these during the day, I want my old stuff. I hate it and want to reset the discovery playlist, but seems I have no way of doing so aside from ge…

One more reason why I prefer Google Play. The recommendations are based off a single station. If you start a new station it starts from scratch.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#53

If anybody wants to know how to earn $20/decade with Spotify I can throw some of my own experiences into a blog post :)

$2 a year might have been enough to live a middle class life back in ...... What's the conversion rate for the Roman sesterces in 44BC to USD?

You can’t have it at $2/year though - my distributor only cuts a check when you reach the $20 threshold. I had forgotten I had music on there by the time the check showed up!

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#54
I was pretty sure I had read this before on HN but it turns out it was the previous blog post, when he was only earning $400/month:

https://www.stevebenjamins.com/blog/spotify-and-discover-wee...

Still it would be better if the posts had a date.

I have 14 "weekly" listeners on Spotify but I only started a month ago. Still, I'm short of ideas on how to grow this.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#55
post #34

Spotify's discovery playlist is a double edged sword. My account is permanently screwed because I decided to listen to a lot of rain sounds when going to sleep for a few months while I had a puppy. Now ALL I get for recommendations are calm sounds. I don't actually listen to these during the day, I want my old stuff. I hate it and want to reset the discovery playlist, but seems I have no way of doing so aside from ge…

YES! I played Daddy Yankee's Gasolina at a party once as kind of a joke and for weeks my Discover Weekly was filled with Spanish music.

I wish they had a 'stealth' mode or at least an option to reset your tastes.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#56

65,000 listeners a month – $800 in revenue. 1.23 cents per listener per month. That works out to 14.7 cents per year. To earn a modest $50,000, you would need ~360,000 monthly listeners. This doesn't seem sustainable without outside sources of revenue.

Not just that, many acts are splitting the royalties amongst band members, song writers, producers, etc.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#57

65,000 listeners a month – $800 in revenue. 1.23 cents per listener per month. That works out to 14.7 cents per year. To earn a modest $50,000, you would need ~360,000 monthly listeners. This doesn't seem sustainable without outside sources of revenue.

50 000$ isn't modest in most parts of the world.

I was thinking about that. Live in Southeast Asia or Costa Rica for half the year, pay a fraction in cost of living compared to the US, and invest the savings.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#58
post #34

Spotify's discovery playlist is a double edged sword. My account is permanently screwed because I decided to listen to a lot of rain sounds when going to sleep for a few months while I had a puppy. Now ALL I get for recommendations are calm sounds. I don't actually listen to these during the day, I want my old stuff. I hate it and want to reset the discovery playlist, but seems I have no way of doing so aside from ge…

One more reason why I prefer Google Play. The recommendations are based off a single station. If you start a new station it starts from scratch.

Am I the only one that received an email from Google telling me that Google Play music was going to close soon and that I should transfer my playlists?

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#59
The author is the same guy behind a $40k/month website builder review site. Big fan of his interview on Indie Hackers[1]

It's interesting to see him use SEO to describe algorithmic playlists. He would know, SEO is a huge part of his other business.

[1] https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/besting-the-competiti...

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#60
post #34

Spotify's discovery playlist is a double edged sword. My account is permanently screwed because I decided to listen to a lot of rain sounds when going to sleep for a few months while I had a puppy. Now ALL I get for recommendations are calm sounds. I don't actually listen to these during the day, I want my old stuff. I hate it and want to reset the discovery playlist, but seems I have no way of doing so aside from ge…

If you contact Spotify, they can reset your listening history and recommendations!! I learned this.
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