Songwriters attack Spotify's "tiny" royalties

Now this might be interesting to see where the money is actually going.

If the record companies are taking an over-large chunk of the revenue, will there be an amendment for the Digital Economy Bill to ensure the artist gets more?

Anyone care to have a guess?

By greemble on 13 Apr 2010

$167 for over a million plays... sounds a very poor rate of reimbursement, but I'd love to know what commercial radio pays for a single play, and how many listeners that reaches to see how that compares. I'll wager the average spotify play reaches between one and two listeners, so a million plays would be maybe 1.2m listeners, less than many shows on radios 1 or 2.

By rsw75 on 13 Apr 2010

Try before you buy

I have bought much more music since I started using Spotify. I love being able to listen to an album first and then buy the CD if I like it. Before Spotify, I just downloaded an occasional track from iTunes.

By leew2 on 13 Apr 2010

Free my EYE!!!

I'm sick of people saying spotify is free i challenge you to get an account for nothing!! you either need an invite from someone who has PAID FOR IT or you have to subscribe yourself PAYING FOR IT unless you choose to go on the waiting list to be held in a queue ending somewhere near eternity i think. Point being if there charging then they should paying the songwriters their dues. WE7 seem to manage ok and they don't charge anything at all. perhaps AC/DC and Metallica smelt a rat along eh?

By weziwoo on 13 Apr 2010

Point being

"if they're charging then they should paying the songwriters their dues"

See above:
the stake record labels hold in the company mean revenues are "unlikely to filter down into payments to the artists".

And there is the question - where's the money going?

By greemble on 14 Apr 2010

Radio Royalties

I'd be interested to know roughly how much is paid for a single play on radio 1, which is played to well over 1 million listeners, as this is surely how this should be compared.

By pickledliver on 14 Apr 2010

Why attack Spotify?

If the record companies are not paying songwriters enough then how is that Spotify's fault? They could just as well blame HMV for not selling enough CDs.

By peterm2k on 14 Apr 2010

Well, if HMV sells over a million copies of your single I think you'd need a really brass neck to say they should sell more. I think the artist is simply discovering that, just as 100% of nothing is nothing, 0% of lots is also nothing.

By steviesteveo on 14 Apr 2010

well... since the record companies together own most of spotify, the artist should probably go complain to their publishers if they want to get more money out of spotify

By ioushephf on 15 Apr 2010

But surely $167 for a million plays is better than the $0 that was being recieved from a million torrents? The record companies are, as usual, being reactionary to anything they feel may harm their baselines, whilst at the same time failing to take into account the (albeit unquantifiable) benefits of Spotify in, for example, stimulating sales of high-quality media.

By qwertyqwerty87 on 15 Apr 2010

Spotify - "We'll pay what we want to, when we want"

Quote - "in the past the company has argued that artists will be better compensated when more people subscribe or click on ads". Oh dear, that means they dont want to pay unless they feel like it. I wonder if my local supermarket would mind me taking stuff now, and paying them a few pennies later if I feel like it? Surely there is a lawyer out there who can see the absurdity? I thought the Music Biz was pretty sewn up legally, but is this Spotify avoiding all its legal obligations? Sounds like the Record Companies really DO own Spotify, if they want to rip off the Artists who make the music they sell to survive!

By Wilbert3 on 15 Apr 2010

Spotify - "We'll pay what we want to, when we want"

Quote - "in the past the company has argued that artists will be better compensated when more people subscribe or click on ads". Oh dear, that means they dont want to pay unless they feel like it. I wonder if my local supermarket would mind me taking stuff now, and paying them a few pennies later if I feel like it? Surely there is a lawyer out there who can see the absurdity? I thought the Music Biz was pretty sewn up legally, but is this Spotify avoiding all its legal obligations? Sounds like the Record Companies really DO own Spotify, if they want to rip off the Artists who make the music they sell to survive!

By Wilbert3 on 15 Apr 2010

Spotify - "We'll pay what we want to, when we want"

Quote - "in the past the company has argued that artists will be better compensated when more people subscribe or click on ads". Oh dear, that means they dont want to pay unless they feel like it. I wonder if my local supermarket would mind me taking stuff now, and paying them a few pennies later if I feel like it? Surely there is a lawyer out there who can see the absurdity? I thought the Music Biz was pretty sewn up legally, but is this Spotify avoiding all its legal obligations? Sounds like the Record Companies really DO own Spotify, if they want to rip off the Artists who make the music they sell to survive!

By Wilbert3 on 15 Apr 2010

Spotify - "We'll pay what we want to, when we want"

Quote - "in the past the company has argued that artists will be better compensated when more people subscribe or click on ads". Oh dear, that means they dont want to pay unless they feel like it. I wonder if my local supermarket would mind me taking stuff now, and paying them a few pennies later if I feel like it? Surely there is a lawyer out there who can see the absurdity? I thought the Music Biz was pretty sewn up legally, but is this Spotify avoiding all its legal obligations? Sounds like the Record Companies really DO own Spotify, if they want to rip off the Artists who make the music they sell to survive!

By Wilbert3 on 15 Apr 2010

If you are a small business and want to listen to the radio at work, even if it has nothing to do with your commercial business, you have to pay for a license.You can't dictate what you pay yet Spotify does what it likes even though its primary reason for existance is to make money out of music. How does that work then?

By gfestenstein on 15 Apr 2010

@Wilbert3: I took the Spotify quote to mean: once there are more users or more add clicks, there will be more money for the artists as they receive a percentage of profits generated. However, I think they should be open about payments but can bet the argument that giving such details away would harm any competitive advantage.

By nicholbb1 on 16 Apr 2010

Just saw this

It's from the internet so must be true ... guess you should take following with pinch of salt.

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=4
8760

By nicholbb1 on 17 Apr 2010