I see that ”$0.003 per stream” number. Given you had the power to change it, what would the number be?
@odd yeah, I think the number itself doesn’t tell the story. Something else is needed to tell the whole story
@tkoola Yes, like what is the pay the company pays to the employees and CXO’s, and what dividends are paid to the shareholders are something I’d like to know.
@tkoola That's a good question. I pay Spotify AUD$22 a month, and according to Last.fm I had 2,322 scrobbles last month... which works out to less than 1¢ per track played even if Spotify didn't have employees or servers to maintain or anything. And my dad and my sister are also on my plan, so likely the AUD$22 would have to be stretched further than just over my plays, too. But then I guess there are other subscribers who listen less? idk. I do think that, fundamentally, the economics of streaming just don't work out for any but the biggest-name artists, but with cost of living pressures etc. most people'd be very reluctant to go back to buying music. Maybe what we really need is a basic income for artists (and I'd include other creative industries in that, not just music) so they're free to create and can make a living without aggressive monetisation.
@jayeless Interesting numbers, I need to go and look for mine. Can't be much higher than that $0.01. I have tried getting music over Bandcamp this year but turns out they were bought by someone not so nice. I don't think even those artists would get more than few cents per time I play their music but at least they get a better share of the income.
@tkoola Yeah, I've very recently started buying music over Bandcamp as well! I'm planning to start using Spotify more like a discovery engine and buy the music I find myself listening to again and again. It really does suck that Bandcamp got bought out by union-busters, but at least as far as I know they haven't changed the % of sales proceeds they give to artists, and there's not really a better alternative for the moment, unfortunately.