Spotify: Lady Gaga gets rich... Uhm. Not Really.

[Stiff]

Originally Posted by figgebass

He's been misquoted to some extent cos what really pissed him off was , ofcourse in combination with the lousy payment, that his record company Sony owns a serious share in spotify so he said he'd rather be raped bu TPB than by his Sony boss....

I heard something similar as well. some have complained about the record companies screwing the artists because they've negotiated stocks instead of money (which the artists of course don't get shit from).

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios

itunes pays $7.00 per album and .70 per song - how the label then redistributes that is another story... point being, at gross revenue - itunes is looking a lot better than spotify...
.

exactly. And standard record deals apply to all those who have them, which is still nearly every major artist {I hear Radiohead have given up the independent ghost finding the logistics a little bitter}.

[Sigfried Chicken]

The $167 is just from the Swedish PRO. The total amount paid out to herself, her label, the publisher, etc. should be many times that amount.

It would be really nice to know what Spotify had to pay out for those 1 million plays. But, unlike iTunes, everything is a secret with Spotify.

My guess would be around $5000 is paid out for a million streams, but I could be way off. This would come out to around a half penny per stream. A $5-10 CPM is not uncommon for successful websites. I believe Rhapsody pays around a penny per play, but they are a subscription model, so it's easier for them.

Also, Spotify is much different from radio because Spotify is play-on-demand. in radio, someone picks the songs for you, and the songs chosen get a promotional benefit because you are getting exposed to songs that you might not be familiar with. This is NOT the same as Spotify, where the songs are picked freely by the listener. As a result, the amount due per listener stream should be much higher for Spotify than it would be for radio.

[Slogun]

According to a Facebook group the artists get US$ 0.33/per 1000 listenings from Spotify.

That's in the ballpark of what I've heard as well from my old band colleague (one of our old albums is on Spotify).

[pjplayer]

Very interesting comparison on the blog No Rock n Roll Fun:

Originally Posted by xrrf

A million people listen to Lady GaGa, she makes a hundred pounds, and this is supposed to be a small amount?

As I've pointed out before, the last published figures showed that BBC Radio One [largest yoof radio station in the UK] pays £18 a minute for music it plays - so, a three-minute Lady GaGa song on Chris Moyles show garners £54 for the equivalent of seven and a half million streams. Looks like Spotify is overpaying, doesn't it?

[rack gear]

apples and oranges... the BBC isn't reporting itself to be a new source of revenue and business model for the music industry... and Spotify isn't reporting to be an online radio station... they are a for profit music streaming & subscription service.

[pjplayer]

Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios

apples and oranges... the BBC isn't reporting itself to be a new source of revenue and business model for the music industry... and Spotify isn't reporting to be an online radio station... they are a for profit music streaming & subscription service.

i'll admit that it's not exactly the same thing, but i think it's a fair comparison. just because spotify is new, it doesn't mean it can't be compared to broadcast radio. can you think of a better comparison? physical sales? that's not the same thing. mp3 sales? that's not the same thing either.

and, although the bbc is paid for by the uk govt through money it collects from TV licensing from everyone with a TV, anyone who's witnessed the media and political assault on it knows that it has to behave like any other 'for profit' company when it comes to it's business dealings: cutting costs and paying as little as possible to the vast majority of the talent and far too much to a few 'star' presenters.

[bof]

Originally Posted by pjplayer

i'll admit that it's not exactly the same thing, but i think it's a fair comparison.

Both radio and streaming are broadcasting. Spotify is broadcasting on demand and offers more value to the customer. Radio offers more value to the label in terms of marketing. If a radio station has a million listeners, a single airplay will be the equivalent of a million streams in terms of customers hearing the track.

Does Spotify pay up-front for the 'licence' for a million streams or does it pay when the million mark is reached and pro-rata for anything less than a million? If it pays up front, then there's a small element of risk for Spotify.

Just random thoughts.