Everybody's Doing it... Get in the Car. Ok

Where things are today being an artist, they provide the music and the “content”… once they make it, like any business, they need ways to get it out to people to discover, listen, buy, grow with.

With this, it’s necessary to have a retailer to carry said album.  In 2025, we need an aggregator… a place/source to make it available to be competitive and available for discovery and consumption.

Sadly, as the creators, this is a business they have no say in.  We need the platforms regardless of how shitty they are to musicians… both in payment made and in the hierarchy of status based on who you are or work with. 

But if you don’t play the game, you can’t get on the field and compete.

In the old days, you had to work with a label to compete with the majors.  They had money, they had power, they had staff, they had radio, retail positioning and without them, you couldn’t compete. 

The business took a dive where consumers rebelled against the monopoly they had over consumers and Napster came to play. 

 

This was a true rebellion that was raging against the corporate music machine, but while harming the business itself, it also hurt many major label musicians in the process.  The company gets hurt, it trickles down to the artist.  Collateral damage..   

But indie artists and homegrown artists took this technology and embraced it to reach bigger audiences.  Between that and upcoming social platforms like Friendster and later MySpace, these young artists found a way to get to their audience without the labels and status quo of the distribution and stronghold on who could play.

The business lost big.  They fought what was going to be the future of distribution and consumption rather than embracing it.  

It was the first time David was beating Goliath. The nerds were beating the Jocks.  The bullies were getting outsmarted and taken down with no mercy.  

This created music scenes… this helped bands and artists get discovered in a true DIY way. Bands you never heard of were selling tickets, selling CD’s, selling merch and albums were being listened to and it was not a singles driven, radio needed environment.  

Major Labels lost.  

They had to drop staff, merge companies leaving the model and a lot of great employees out of work.  All because the bullies thought it was better to try and muscle the future from happening and lost.

The “business” was dead for several years.  360 deals came to life, ways to “beat” the new world failed over and over again.  Tech companies getting funding to bring a “new” technology came, failed, went away and no solutions…

Then Spotify comes to play.  A new technology that sounded ridiculous. But the industry couldn’t pass on any ideas at this point.  The technology and idea was crazy, but if it worked, they had to be a part of it… but like every idea, it needs something to make something. 

The technology needed music. So the business finally had leverage.  Spotify could have come out without cutting deals with majors, but nobody would use it.  Without the majors, it would have been the equivalent of MP3.com or eMusic. Good platforms alternatives, but no gravitas to take them to the next level of dominance.

The majors had nothing to lose and nothing but potential profit to come.  So learning from their lesson with Napster, they all joined the party and carved out percentages of ownership and won.

Spotify launched in Europe and grew and grew while the partnerships they made came to become financial success stories.  Profits via this new platform was not only success for doing nothing, but eliminated the cost of production and distribution.  That all became a click (literally) away.

Spotify needed the master rights and they got them.  The labels got ownership and priority. Each company providing music was able to negotiate their cut from music streamed, percentage of subscriptions purchased and percentage of ads sold.  All that profit is direct for the companies.  

The artists?  They signed deals that already established their percentage of music sold.  So, they were still getting their 12-18%, but that percentage is based on the income earned per stream at this point.  So when a song pays .0043 cents per stream, the artist collects 12-18% of that towards any recoupment or even payment.  Let’s say an artists streams 1 million streams and earns $4,300.00, the artist only makes (say 15%) $645… or that $645 goes towards their recoupment of any advance of expenses needed to pay back.

Side note… that $.0043 is based on the royalty paid on a subscriber to the platform.  So it doesn’t mean that’s the actual payment make per stream.  The percentage goes down if the song is streamed by a family account, a student account or a free account (you can even add in those 3 months free when buying a plan with Verizon or ATT)… so that’s a general estimate based on the best case scenario.

So the labels are winners and taking victory laps for the Billions they make per day… but are still cutting staff, paying horrible deals and taking advantage of artists and consumers.

When these deals were cut with Spotify and other Digital Service Providers, the other people who were an oversight were songwriters and publishers.  So there is another loss. 

 

My belief is that this wasn’t even a thought because based on publishing and releases, there has always been a statutory rate in place for songs on albums and releases, so all parties could ignore the grey area and move forward without ever considering that position.  Blanket licenses issued and no room for negigotiation over this time.   No harm, no foul and play stupid.  It worked.  Deal was cut, the train was out of the station and everyone would have to catch up to the car in motion.  Act first, apologize later.

Now.. this isn’t all bad for those artists without a label.  The platform opened to everyone. With places like Tunecore or CD Baby (and now Distrokid and all the actual distributors) an independent  artist now has the opportunity to get distributed on said platforms.  No need for a major label like the old days where if you weren’t on a label or worked with a distributor of some sort, you couldn’t get in a retail store nation (or world) wide.  

So now, all artists have that opportunity.  They also have the ability to earn all the income from streams and not take a percentage based on a bad record deal.  The problem now is the over saturation and competition on said platforms. 

You see, the majors are still the winners.  As “owners” they have priority over others.  From playlisting, to exposure, to automatic placement on homepages and use in ads.

Do you remember when retail stores like Tower records or Virgin still existed?  You’d go in and see a display of new titles or listening stations.  That was called Price and Positioning.  It meant the labels paid for those areas to promote their titles and get the best option for eyes to see.  Subliminal ways of making a person aware of its existence and influence curiosity or familiarity.  Like when you go to a store, stand in line and see something near the checkout and you pick it up because “why not”.. the impulse purchase (Starbucks were the Kings of this when they sold CD’s at the counter that was playing in the stores when you went) .  If it’s not there in front of you, you’ll never have the impulse to buy it.

Streaming is the same thing… New Music Friday, homepage, whatever… if you open your app and it displays something, you are more willing to check it out vs digging and looking for it.  If you never heard of an artist, you can’t see them right in front of your face, it’s not on a “suggested” playlist, you’ll never know it exists.  

So, the majors/owners still have the best price and positioning on DSP’s…but at least you have the chance to be in the game now.

Ok… so why this long ass summary?  

Well, because in 2025 and moving forward, this is what an artist needs to be on to get a chance.  If an artist doesn’t participate on these platforms, they cut their noses to spite their faces.

                                                    

It would be so great to fuck the system and go full punk rock and say fuck you… but the only real result would be patting yourself on the back and maybe a few fans leaving a comment congratulating you.  But, now you are out of the game.  And those who commented on your Declaration of Independence are still paying their subscriptions on said platforms.  As that idiot DJ Kahled said in a great meme… “Congratulations.  You played yourself”… you took yourself right out of the game and hurt your career.  

It sucks that this is even our reality.  But it is what it is. Pearl Jam at the height of their careers took on Ticketmaster and made a huge statement… took it as far as they did and are still out here playing shows 25 years later for Live Nation (who own.. yep... Ticketmaster).  A stance is an awakening, but when the toothpaste is out the tube, the only way to win is to create a new tube.  I don’t see that any time soon, so we have to play the game.  

But there are helpful alternatives to assist.  The obvious are going to shows.  Buying merch. Buying vinyl, Bandcamp and CD’s. Going to record stores. Follow the artists socials, comment on posts… just show encouragement. 

Buy direct from artists and their web stores and avoiding bootleg sites what steal intellectual property direct.  

While using the streaming platforms, using those to share music, make playlists, do things that can encourage new fans who hopefully then use the alternative ways I just listed to support the artist.

The whole point (of this whole diatribe) was to point out the most disturbing news we have encountered (with regard  to Spotify)  is that it was made public that Spotify owner Daniel Ek, (who is a billionaire at this point), is investing money in defense start up Helsing. A company that is creating AI defense software and military drones as well as Spotify running ads for ICE recruitment that just in an ethical level is something many musicians are vocal about and oppose.  And while the platrom has come out with a statement, it doesn't change the fact that here is a platform used by billions that oppose war and whats happening in the United States

These actions alone have made it a place where some artists have taken a stance to remove their music from the platform.  These removals and stances have made a 24 hour impact and temporary blurb on social media platforms, but the fall silent and the only impact it makes if by hurting the artists music available for discovery. 

We stand with those artists, but they are also musicians which this is the career they chose. 

Without being part of the game, they aren’t playing.  It’s easy to fall under the “you are the problem” banner from not removing music from the platform, but that’s easy to say when pointing the finger.  But, everyone in the problem by keeping subscriptions or using the platforms.  So it’s a 2 way street.  

What I can say is that there are alternatives… if people leave Spotify and move at a revolutionary rate to these other options, I promise you, artists will also leave.  But you can’t leave when everyone else is staying.

Artists will continue to voice opinions and make art with words and music to rebel against the things in life that should be put on display and called out… and you as consumers, will continue to use the platforms, while calling out artists for staying on them.

When everyone legitamatly divests from use of the things they hate but live daily with, from Spotify, Amazon, Facebook, Walmart etc .. artists will too.  Here's a list of companies that support Project 2025, which includes ICE...

But at this point if artists were to lead the way would be like Frank the Tank streaking to the quad and nobody following.