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'Weird Al' Roasts Spotify's Artist Payout System in Year-End Wrapped Video

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Re: 'Weird Al' Roasts Spotify's Artist Payout System in Year-End Wrapped Video

#71

Post by jrajav »

apwell23 wrote: post #57
jrajav wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see your point, but it's mainly this part: > subtract a percentage for themselves Streaming platforms (let's not just pick on Spotify, though they also pay worse than others) just do this arbitrarily. They decide how much to skim off for themselves before graciously paying artists. This isn't how it works in basically any other industry where one group of skilled individuals create content that is then sold on some…

> middleman takes a well-defined, reasonable cut of that. Can you cite some examples of this. Etsy perhaps?

Online app stores, craft stores (Etsy), contracting services (Fiverr), even some other streaming services with direct subscription sales (like Twitch). All also marketplaces where skilled creators are selling the actual value that drives it.

Re: 'Weird Al' Roasts Spotify's Artist Payout System in Year-End Wrapped Video

#72

Post by longtimelistnr »

burnerburnson wrote: post #65

Seeing megamillionaires complain that the common man only has to pay $10/month to listen to their music is getting pretty old.

I’m sure he’s not hard pressed for money but i doubt he’s a mega millionaire. This should be seen as using a platform and audience to speak for those much smaller than him.

Re: 'Weird Al' Roasts Spotify's Artist Payout System in Year-End Wrapped Video

#73

Post by Eumenes »

redundantly wrote: post #21
dbalatero wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when has "deserves" ever been part of the equation?

Yeah. I forgot this. I also forgot how much she's liked in the middle aged, white male demographic, so I'm not likely to get much sympathy here on HN.

The infantilization of adults in the West continue to rise. Child like obsession with teen idols, Disney, Legos, Funko Pops, Marvel movies, video games, etc. Consumerism is rampant. The number of engineers I work with in their 30s who fit this stereotype is truly bizarre. When we hang out at an offsite, I feel like I'm spending time with my teenage cousins.

Re: 'Weird Al' Roasts Spotify's Artist Payout System in Year-End Wrapped Video

#74

Post by anderber »

emilecantin wrote: post #38

I think a better payout structure for Spotify would be to go per-user. For example, for each subscriber a given amount from their subscription plan is earmarked for payouts. Let's say about 4$ per user. We divide that amount by the number of streams the user had that month, and we simply pay that amount to the artist. Examples: - I only listened to one song this month? The full 4$ go to that artist. - I listened to 2…

For a while Deezer was pushing a model similar to this, they called it User Centric Payment System: https://musically.com/2019/09/11/deezer-steps-up-its-efforts...

Here's another article on it: https://www.engadget.com/2019-09-11-deezer-royalty-system-sm...

Unfortunately, they've since changed it to a model that the labels wanted.

Re: 'Weird Al' Roasts Spotify's Artist Payout System in Year-End Wrapped Video

#75

Post by occz »

xavxav wrote: post #2

I'm not familiar with the structure of stream payouts on Spotify, but if 80 million streams gives 12 dollars, that means Taylor Swift's 26.1B streams give ~4k? I knew the rates were bad but damn...

The numbers are obviously not accurate.

Re: 'Weird Al' Roasts Spotify's Artist Payout System in Year-End Wrapped Video

#76

Post by erellsworth »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #39
MrJohz wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not income directly for him, it's paid to his label, and that label will take their own cut. My impression is that the label takes the largest cut of all the people involved, but I'm happy to be corrected on that.

Not to forget that Weird Al is doing a lot of covers - so he is not the original composer of the song. Performers usually get paid way less (everybody can perform a cover of any song out there), but the composers get paid the lion share. I also doubt he gets $12 but probably lot more, the video is just intended to draw attention to Spotify's payout schemes.

Weird Al doesn't do covers, aside from a few exceptions. He does parodies. Parody falls under fair use, so legally I don't think he has to pay royalties, though he may anyway.

Re: 'Weird Al' Roasts Spotify's Artist Payout System in Year-End Wrapped Video

#77

Post by KomoD »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #39
MrJohz wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not income directly for him, it's paid to his label, and that label will take their own cut. My impression is that the label takes the largest cut of all the people involved, but I'm happy to be corrected on that.

Not to forget that Weird Al is doing a lot of covers - so he is not the original composer of the song. Performers usually get paid way less (everybody can perform a cover of any song out there), but the composers get paid the lion share. I also doubt he gets $12 but probably lot more, the video is just intended to draw attention to Spotify's payout schemes.

> Spotifies

Spotify's

Re: 'Weird Al' Roasts Spotify's Artist Payout System in Year-End Wrapped Video

#78

Post by itsyaboi »

longtimelistnr wrote: post #72
burnerburnson wrote: post #65

Seeing megamillionaires complain that the common man only has to pay $10/month to listen to their music is getting pretty old.

I’m sure he’s not hard pressed for money but i doubt he’s a mega millionaire. This should be seen as using a platform and audience to speak for those much smaller than him.

He seems to have a net worth of ~$20M.

Re: 'Weird Al' Roasts Spotify's Artist Payout System in Year-End Wrapped Video

#79

Post by ReptileMan »

netrus wrote: post #62
ReptileMan wrote: post #37

I want a streaming service with following business model: I pay 10 dollars for unlimited streaming. Spotify gets 1 or 2. I listen only to taylor swift on repeat - she gets 8 I listen to only one song the whole month - then some obscure metal band from Finland gets 8 I listen to 40 bands equally - they get 20c each I listen to 1 band as 20 other combined - the band get 4$ all the rest split 4. Thats it Here is the kic…

If the pot size stays the same, you are just shuffling around between artists. So artists who are listened to by people who only listen to a bit of music benefit, and those listened to by people who listen to a lot of music get less. I guess there are two groups of people who listen to a lot of music: 1) young people 2) people who like music a lot. So bad news for Taylor Swift AND obscure bands only interesting to en…

Look - I don't pretend I have the perfect formula, but as long as the money I give spotify go only the people I listen to in ratios that could be considered as just I am fine. There are many ways to tweak the payout, but it is the ideology behind it that seems to be fucked up right now.

Re: 'Weird Al' Roasts Spotify's Artist Payout System in Year-End Wrapped Video

#80

Post by apwell23 »

jrajav wrote: post #71
apwell23 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> middleman takes a well-defined, reasonable cut of that. Can you cite some examples of this. Etsy perhaps?

Online app stores, craft stores (Etsy), contracting services (Fiverr), even some other streaming services with direct subscription sales (like Twitch). All also marketplaces where skilled creators are selling the actual value that drives it.

Ah gotcha. These are the site where creators don't have another middleman like record labels ? I am not sure how payouts work if you can even publish directly on spotify.
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