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Old 07-22-2016, 09:23 AM
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rick-slo rick-slo is offline
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Default The music industry is still screwed

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http://www.salon.com/2014/06/20/the_...sical_artists/
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Old 07-22-2016, 10:12 AM
runamuck runamuck is offline
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The present situation for artists is already a bust. I have a friend who has over 1/4 million plays a month and makes less than what most people make in a day. Pandora, Spotify and others are totally screwing the people who provide the music that they're making millions on.
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Old 07-22-2016, 10:59 AM
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The article claims that the streaming industry is counting on 500 million to one billion subscribers paying $12 a month. That's $144 a year. I know probably one person who pays a hundred bucks a year for music. I think very, very few people are willing to shell out that kind of money.
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Old 07-22-2016, 11:08 AM
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There's a great book by John Seabrook called "The Song Machine" which talks about the efficacy of streaming in making piracy obsolete, but also the twisted revenue sharing model heavily skewed towards labels rather than songwriters. In the book there's an artist who has about 250k plays but received under $1k. Other factoids:

- In 2008 there were 13 million songs on iTunes, 10 million did not sell a single copy. 52,000 songs made up 80% of the sales.

- Today, 77% of the profits go to 1% of the artists

There's an episode of Shark Tank where an agent presents a band he manages as the investment opportunity, and one of the 'sharks' says - I'm sorry, but music is an industry with just too much supply.
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Old 07-22-2016, 11:29 AM
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The final paragraph pretty much says it as far as how skewed it is:

"The songwriters have a fair reason to be angry at Pandora. Executives like founder Tim Westergren and former CEO Joe Kennedy have already cashed in on their IPO to the tunes of millions of dollars. In fact, Westergren may have made more money in 2013 by cashing in his stock options than Pandora paid to ASCAP in total for steaming royalties!"
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Derek Coombs
Youtube -> Website -> Music -> Tabs
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"Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

Woods hands pick by eye and ear
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A voice from heavens above
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Old 07-22-2016, 11:49 AM
Kray Van Kirk Kray Van Kirk is offline
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It's a complicated and frustrating situation, for sure. My stuff generally appeals to older audiences, and most of them aren't streaming or using similar services, nor are they downloading much. So as far as my stuff goes, digital airplay isn't a support avenue, it's just very small advertising. (I do, however, have some issues with 'service providers' like Spotify and such for a number of reasons, but I'll leave those aside).

There is virtually endless music supply, given the number of people out there who play and can record and broadcast/distribute. Not all of them are good; many of them are. Some of the music works as a live show, some of it doesn't, and that might be a significant dividing line.

I used to make a living playing music, and lived out of my van for 5 years or so (in the days before the Net, making booking phone calls from phone booths all over the place). I ended up as a single Dad, and stopped touring because I wasn't going to toss a 2 year-old in the van to be out there. So I got the day job, etc. Now in a position to move towards making a living doing it again, the scene has changed enormously. Competition is greater, but the foundation for me at least is still playing the live shows and (once again) CD sales. I tried doing only digital distribution through the website, but my audiences aren't really targeted towards that.

I've heard it said the pie is the same but now more people have smaller slices. That might be true, with the removal of the middleman to some extent, but whether that means making good art is now also dependent on holding down a non-artistic day job... well...
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Old 07-22-2016, 11:51 AM
dhalbert dhalbert is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rick-slo View Post
This story is from two years ago, so a newer take on the situation would be interesting.
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Old 07-22-2016, 11:57 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dhalbert View Post
This story is from two years ago, so a newer take on the situation would be interesting.
OK, find it.
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"Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

Woods hands pick by eye and ear
Made to one with pride and love
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Old 07-22-2016, 12:49 PM
dhalbert dhalbert is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rick-slo View Post
OK, find it.
I apologize if you thought I was being snarky. The situation is bad; the article was predicting problems, and it's clear they continue: https://www.google.com/search?q=streaming+and+musicians.
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  #10  
Old 07-22-2016, 09:32 PM
Kray Van Kirk Kray Van Kirk is offline
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While we're on the subject, I just checked and I have a grand total of FIVE (5, count'em, 5) cents from all my Spotify plays. :-p
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