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

Post by bberrry » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 3:44 PM UTC

jrajav wrote: post #50

happymellon wrote: post #28

> which is notoriously bad at paying musicians. The only thing I ever see are people comparing against the money that 90's rockstars used to be able to bring in from album sales. That ship sailed a long time ago, Spotify take everyone's money, substract a percentage for themselves and distribute the rest based upon number of plays. If you were a big artist it's probably worse because you aren't getting a sweet deal t…

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…

Post by dagw » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 3:45 PM UTC

floor2 wrote: post #61

littlecranky67 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 does not do covers. His albums are a mixture of parodies and fully original pieces. The parodies often use the same melody as the source work, but with original lyrics. Sometimes the music is itself parodied, and performed using an accordian or some other unique instrument. In terms of creativity, artistic vision, lyrical difficulty or any other metric, Weird Al should be understood as an incredibly talented…

Post by happymellon » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 3:46 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #34

happymellon wrote: post #28

> which is notoriously bad at paying musicians. The only thing I ever see are people comparing against the money that 90's rockstars used to be able to bring in from album sales. That ship sailed a long time ago, Spotify take everyone's money, substract a percentage for themselves and distribute the rest based upon number of plays. If you were a big artist it's probably worse because you aren't getting a sweet deal t…

Maybe I have a different memory of record deals, but I've never heard of a band that made money from album sales. This is why they are always touring. It's not to promote the album, but to make money themselves. That's why there are jokes about bands "coming out of retirement" to do a tour after so many years being because one of the members needs to make a payment for something or other.

Post by jrajav » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 3:48 PM UTC

bberrry wrote: post #82

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…

Ironically it's widely known that the labels get 70% of all music revenue and Spotify gets to keep 30% for itself (which famously hasn't been enough to even turn a profit). You couldn't be more wrong.

Post by babyshake » Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 3:53 PM UTC

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…