How Spotify and Discover Weekly Earn Me $400/month • Hacker News Board

Re: How Spotify and Discover Weekly Earn Me $400/month

#111

Post by frogpelt » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 8:33 PM UTC

mfoy_ wrote: post #24

DontGiveTwoFlux wrote: post #18

In college about 5 years ago, I heard a presentation from some recording industry people who worked at a studio. They saw Spotify as the reason their industry would still exist in five years. I think at the time total recording revenues were still declining, but the streaming growth was really picking up. Spotify has brilliantly convinced many people to spend $120 per year on music. The average CD-buyer spent much le…

It has always been, and always will be, about convenience first. Pre-Spotify and pre-bandcamp, getting music you could play on multiple devices was hard . Piracy was the only reliable way you could have the same songs on your walkman, your mp3 player, your phone, and your computer. Bandcamp is nice, in that it offers DRM-free music in high quality, but Spotify offers raw, unadulterated convenience . And Convenience i…

Okay, I don't disagree with your premise. And I was a small time pirate before Spotify and the like.

But couldn't you legally copy music between devices without being a pirate?

Also, surely nobody tried to have music for an MP3 player AND a Walkman. Those have got to be mutually exclusive, don't they? Even smartphones and MP3 players didn't exist together much.

I personally started paying for Spotify to help myself feel more ethical about my music consumption. And it is very convenient. Except I haven't ponyed up for the family price yet, so only one person in my family can use it at a time.

Re: How Spotify and Discover Weekly Earn Me $400/month

#112

Post by bridanp » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 8:38 PM UTC

steve-benjamins wrote: post #86

eyeareque wrote: post #17

It would be interesting to see the bump you get in listeners post HN front page.

It's a nice uptick— I have ~60 real-time Spotify listeners right now (usually it's around 25 this time of day).

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm hoping there are a lot of indie artists out there who are seeing success through Spotify like yourself. Musicians and the songs they write are like authors and their books: there are way too many good ones to read in a lifetime so we end up just focusing on a few really popular ones. Spotify is like a giant library just ready to be browsed for those who want to step off the path. Also I really enjoyed A Laughing Heart!

Re: How Spotify and Discover Weekly Earn Me $400/month

#113

Post by anoncake » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 8:39 PM UTC

kingosticks wrote: post #92

askosh wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Spotify allows you to download 10,000 tracks offline per device. No limit on the expiration.

You used to have to go online every 30 days (or something) else they would expire. Is that no longer the case? Also, it used to be 10,000 across 3 devices and bizarrely only 333 on each device (even if you only used one device)! I think they have since fixed that.

Did you mean 3333 or was Spotifys policy really that absurd?

Re: How Spotify and Discover Weekly Earn Me $400/month

#114

Post by frogpelt » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 8:40 PM UTC

I'm interested how you record your music. I see on your website that you have a producer. Do you record in a home studio? Pro Logic?

Re: How Spotify and Discover Weekly Earn Me $400/month

#115

Post by empath75 » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 8:53 PM UTC

dyeje wrote: post #73

driverdan wrote: post #53

This is a great counterpoint to people complaining about how little they make from Spotify. One thing that stuck out to me: > Because you can only submit one song, it’s best to space out releases. That way you can have ten singles considered by Spotify editors— rather than one single from an album for an entire year. I've wondered why so many artists were releasing a ton of singles on Spotify. This seems like a gamea…

Is it though? The author makes $400 a month, that's not even close to being a living. Mis metrics and revenue match up with my own experience with Spotify and they are very difficult to achieve. Now imagine that your musical project has 4 people instead of 1, now it's $100 a month per person. Except just kidding, because you'll need to pump all that money (and personal money from members) back into the band to keep t…

It's a hobby for him, not a living. Most people make $0 from their hobbies.

Re: How Spotify and Discover Weekly Earn Me $400/month

#116

Post by empath75 » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 8:54 PM UTC

WhompingWindows wrote: post #76

I'm glad Spotify has opened up as a new revenue stream for musicians but it's a laughably small amount of revenue for how much work it is to compose/record hours of original music. Live music is still king for making money. As an amateur pianist myself, $400 isn't a lot of money per month. I can pull $100/hr in an afternoon at a classy gig playing Classical/Jazz/Folk/Pop, you do that once per week and you're well ove…

With the amount of exposure he's getting from spotify, he could almost certainly get paying gigs if he were interested.

Also, for some people recording is more interesting than performing.

Re: How Spotify and Discover Weekly Earn Me $400/month

#117

Post by js2 » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 9:07 PM UTC

iamben wrote: post #27

mfoy_ wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has always been, and always will be, about convenience first. Pre-Spotify and pre-bandcamp, getting music you could play on multiple devices was hard . Piracy was the only reliable way you could have the same songs on your walkman, your mp3 player, your phone, and your computer. Bandcamp is nice, in that it offers DRM-free music in high quality, but Spotify offers raw, unadulterated convenience . And Convenience i…

Exactly this. And this is exactly the reason why we'll probably all end up pirating movies again. Pretty much everything mainstream (with the exception of a few artists) is on Spotify. Netflix, Amazon, etc etc. get more fractured every day. Every studio wants their own streaming service. How many will you pay for? 2? 1? 0? Everybody loses.

I’ve been working my way through Ebert’s Great Movies of late and was surprised to discover you can’t find some films online, legally or otherwise. E.g., this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pledge_(film)

(There’s two DVD rips listed by the indexer I use but neither of them is the complete film, and no streaming service has it.)

Re: How Spotify and Discover Weekly Earn Me $400/month

#118

Post by djaychela » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 9:24 PM UTC

DontGiveTwoFlux wrote: post #18

In college about 5 years ago, I heard a presentation from some recording industry people who worked at a studio. They saw Spotify as the reason their industry would still exist in five years. I think at the time total recording revenues were still declining, but the streaming growth was really picking up. Spotify has brilliantly convinced many people to spend $120 per year on music. The average CD-buyer spent much le…

Only anectodal (from my own experience), but prior to Spotify being widespread, a friend and I used to make maybe £10/month from sales of our (totally unpromoted, just for fun) trance that we make.

Since streaming became the norm, we've not made that amount in over 2 years. We get streams, but the amount you get is miniscule compared to a single sale.

Re: How Spotify and Discover Weekly Earn Me $400/month

#119

Post by mfoy_ » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 9:28 PM UTC

iamben wrote: post #27

mfoy_ wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has always been, and always will be, about convenience first. Pre-Spotify and pre-bandcamp, getting music you could play on multiple devices was hard . Piracy was the only reliable way you could have the same songs on your walkman, your mp3 player, your phone, and your computer. Bandcamp is nice, in that it offers DRM-free music in high quality, but Spotify offers raw, unadulterated convenience . And Convenience i…

Exactly this. And this is exactly the reason why we'll probably all end up pirating movies again. Pretty much everything mainstream (with the exception of a few artists) is on Spotify. Netflix, Amazon, etc etc. get more fractured every day. Every studio wants their own streaming service. How many will you pay for? 2? 1? 0? Everybody loses.

It's a bad race to the bottom. If everyone and everything in on Spotify, then everyone is happy (so long as Spotify is a benevolent dictator). However, the value to consumers rapidly declines the second something they want is not on the platform.

Netflix is already seriously less useful than it was a few years ago now that more and more copyright holders are pulling their content and starting their own streaming services...

Re: How Spotify and Discover Weekly Earn Me $400/month

#120

Post by smilbandit » Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 9:29 PM UTC

DontGiveTwoFlux wrote: post #18

In college about 5 years ago, I heard a presentation from some recording industry people who worked at a studio. They saw Spotify as the reason their industry would still exist in five years. I think at the time total recording revenues were still declining, but the streaming growth was really picking up. Spotify has brilliantly convinced many people to spend $120 per year on music. The average CD-buyer spent much le…

I spend $180 on the family plan per year and I have for nearly 10 years because it's certainly convenient and allows for music exploration for my kids. Before spotify we used zune music pass.