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 .. artists will too.  

Snopes published a great article, with a very detailed breakdown of all this that I recommend reading here! 

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

Old man look at my life, I'm nothing like you were

I made a post today on social media regarding Neil Young pulling his music from Spotify based on Joe Rogan’s “misinformation” spreading.  My post was pivoting from Young/Rogan beef to the reality and the elephant in the room of artist/earning reality that exists based on this new and dominant form of music distribution that has become the new normal.  

After I hit Post, more thoughts and discussion started to swarm in my head, so figured now was the time to release it here.

I don’t think Spotify and other DSPs are evil.  They are 2022.  I don’t think DSP's are music haters or intentionally pay poorly to content providers (using the word “content” to describe music is so cringy), they just can.  They are the new model.  The old model died a very public death, ironically due to the greed and the power struggle of the former monopoly holders.  This time around those who suffered from the technology shift, thought wisely, and embraced it vs fighting it.  The victim in both technology advancements (file sharing and streaming)?  Artists.

In Art, music specifically has always been the bastard child of entertainment.  Music is the most consumable, the most emotional, personal, universal, achievable, discoverable, and eternal form of entertainment.  But it’s also the most abused.  It’s easy to point the finger at a record company and the deals they make with artists, publishers, managers, the list can go on.  But in a more modern account, music is the canary in the coal mine for technology.  

When Apple first introduced the iPod, the guinea pig was music.  Was it a music device?  No, it was a hardware device.  The success of music was an experiment to move onto visual media, then to a phone.  When iTunes tried to create a digital form of music delivery and set the price at .99 cents per download, the labels said nobody would pay for music they couldn’t hold.  The digital distributors, tried to create a DRM (digital rights management) protocol to keep downloads from being shared.  One proved to be true (people would pay for digital music), and one was abandoned (DRM was eliminated when it proved to be too difficult to impose on consumers.   Who are the losers in this one?  Artists.

When Films, Documentaries and TV shows are made, budgets are allocated for every single cost to make the film.  Costs for cameras, crew, editing, travel, catering, per diems, you name it.  When it comes to the end of the film, the soundtrack is needed to add ambiance and audio accompaniment to it to help create the mood.  Many times (not all) the budget is spent, and music is hunted for use at a low fee or even gratis use under the pitch that it’s “good for exposure”.  The cost of airline flights cost more than the entire music budget, so once again, the artist is victim to a low fee for the use of their music in a film.  Here’s the sad part.  Many times, these low fees are more money than the artist has made from a full year of streaming.  Also, if the license comes from an artist that is signed to a label, the money earned just goes toward the unrecouped balance of the money spent being signed to the label.  This is not a knock-on film/TV use.  This is just to point out how it seems to work for better or for worse.

MTV has always been notorious with the “exposure” line.  Worldwide rights, in perpetuity for “exposure”.  Again, for an unknown artist, this is a good deal, because if their song is used in a reality show and shown in every country, that means they have a shot at being heard.  I’m very pro film/tv placement, especially in 2022 where those forms of exposure are the most likely to get noticed because you can’t fast-forward or skip a song if it’s in a show or film you are watching.   I personally think editors are the best music discovery sources and most helpful to up-and-coming artists than any other individual person.  They cut a scene to a song to create a feeling, an emotion and if they get it right, that moment can change an artist’s life.  I always think of the use of “Breathe Me” by Sia in the finale of Six Feet Under.  I personally believe that placement changed her career forever.  

So back to streaming.  The argument of whether a music fan in 2010 and beyond needed to physically own the music they listened whether it was digital file, or a physical product was a very short one.  No.  Nobody cared.  Spotify and other DSPs were quick to address the issue on ownership.  Quick to realize they needed to strike a deal and work with the majors.  Majors, coming off a horrible past decade because of the refusal to accept and work with technology, came to the table, not as bullies, but as negotiators.  They had something Spotify needed, and Spotify did something they needed.  Deals were struck.  Ownership was granted and here we are.

Now, based on the pay rates per stream, if any businessperson looked at it, there would be no way a major would take this deal.  But, when you look at this deal and are part owner of the company, it’s a lot easier to accept these numbers.  Especially if you get a share of the subscription fees, the advertisement dollars and are still collecting your share of the streams and paying out the artists on the agreed upon percentage they made when signing their contract.

Also, being a partner and having ownership, as a major label, you have advantages built in.  In a distribution system that has 60,000 uploads of new music a day, you still have your influence to take priority to pass go and collect $200.  So, it’s a win, win, win.  If you are on a major label and are a priority, you are elite.   Again.  I can’t hate on any of this.  First you get the power, then you get the money.  

A major label has always been a benefit to any artist.  Being on one is the gold standard.  It’s your shot.  But just like anything, just because you are in the race doesn’t mean you are going to win, place or show.  Sometimes you never even make it out of the stable.  It’s a gamble.  But who would turn that down?  The power, the influence could change your life.  It’s been this way since the beginning of labels.  You are on a label; you had the staff in place with the relationships.  Relationships with radio, video, retail, writers, periodicals, agents, etc.  You had influence.  If you had an A list artist coming out with a new song, you could leverage a new artist to get exposure.  You could put developing acts on headliner packages.  Get an exclusive with an artist if they wrote about someone that needed a review or profile.  Today, being part owners of this new platform, it carries on.  You can’t be mad at them.  Don’t hate the player.  Hate the game.

So, since I have clarified I don’t hate labels for having the power and the influence, I do want to speak on their business itself.  Historically, prior to streaming, labels always put out a lot of money in costs to work with an artist.  There were (and still are) a lot of moving parts.  There were advances, production, art, videos, manufacturing, tour support, distribution, publicity, advertisements, etc.… many of these things still exist.  One missing piece that was very expensive is manufacturing and distribution.  An artist when signing to a label would agree for several releases with options to continue (labels option) if things were going well and would usually negotiate a percentage (points) awarded to them for their music and being part of the label.  This percentage was usually around 12%-16%.  This calculation was based on how much the label was putting into the project from their side and it was a fair (agreed upon) split with the artist for the label doing the heavy lifting and financial investment.  This 85% (Average) would cover the recoupable costs they were putting into the creation, marketing, promotion, manufacturing of the release.  So, for any aspiring and excited artist, this was understandable, and this was their shot.  But, the math wasn’t as clear.  Many artists I know today who have sold 1 million copies of albums are still unrecouped.  How you ask?  Well, when you cut the deal up, you are earning (say) .16 cents per dollar spent.  That is also the number you are recouping on.  So, by that, if $1 is earned and you owe $1, you only paid back .16 cents towards that dollar owed by the dollar earned.  It would take you $6.25 earned to pay back $1 according to your deal.  So, if you earned 1 million dollars, but owed 1 million dollars, only $160,000 was recouped leaving you still $840,000 unrecouped.  There is an upside though.  If you are in this number area, that wood hopefully mean that you are making money another way, like merchandise, touring, as an influencer or branching out into other areas and you got there thanks to the efforts of the work that you and your label did for you to gain this exposure.   But these deals are archaic.  The costs of making, distributing, and promoting a release is nowhere near the numbers it was before streaming.  Majors need to do 50/50 deals.  Give these people a chance to make a living off their music.  

To be fair, Sony has begun trying to work with legacy artists to renegotiate with them for better royalty shares and even wiping clean the accumulated debt that is still unpaid, giving the artists a chance to actually earn a good percentage from their streams moving forward.

I won’t even start on what publishing earns because that alone is its own rant.  Being a partner in the DSPs, earning off each stream (double dipping) and earning off master uses and exploitations, I think you are making enough to give up half of the streaming revenue to these artists.  Making 1 million per hour on streaming.  I think you can share.

That was the old model.  When it cost a lot of money to release and promote a song. When the gates were sealed, and you couldn’t get through unless you had a connection or a way in.  Retail, radio, periodicals.  Very exclusive and impenetrable for the most part.  Manufacturing was expensive and moving units and getting them in stores was hard.  Labels owned end caps and point of positions to highlight their releases and priorities.  You weren’t getting placement on the Tower Records counter as an impulse buy, unless a clerk was a fan and said, “fuck it”, but traditionally those spots were bought and paid for.

Today, with DSP’s being the main distribution model, anyone can get their music on the platforms with independent distributors from TuneCore, Distrokid, CDBaby and more exclusive ones like Fuga, Symphonic, Empire.  Hence, the 60k per day uploads of new songs.  Gone are the record stores, the politics, the golden key to compete against the others.  But now we have a marketplace that is beyond oversaturated and still controlled by the majors because of their ownership.  

Showing the numbers of what an artist earns on each stream is alarming and sad.  But you are now on the field.  I have news for you too.  Regardless of these numbers, if you own your own music, you make all the money.  You can make a living.  I described the deals that artists have with labels, but I also described how much they lose from those situations.  When you own all your stuff, you aren’t receiving .14 of a dollar earned.  You are earning $1 of $1 earned.  It’s not all doom and gloom and fuck the DSP’s for not paying.  It is what it is because that’s what it is, and you can either work with the system or be a tree falling in a forest with nobody there to hear you.  I’m not condoning it, but if you are an artist, there is no other option today.  Try and get more people to convert to the better paying platforms, but at this point it’s like asking someone to change from their iPhone to an Android.  They like what they like.

Spotify, has us all by the balls.  They are the most used platform.  They offer the option to pitch your music to their editorial playlists and if you get on one, life can change.  It sucks.  Whenever I have a release coming out and it’s pitched to Spotify for editorial play listing upon release, I reminds me of buying a lottery scratcher.  You could win or you could lose.  You wait and anticipate every moment waiting for it to win and when you get 2 of 3 numbers, with what you scratched off being generated by a computer with zero explanation as to why you didn’t win.  It’s just the way it goes.  

As an artist or an independent label, we need these platforms.  It the only way to get music to the masses.  They pay for shit, but like I said, if you own your own music, you make all the horrible payouts.  If you are an independent label, make fair deals.  Give the artist 50/50 deals.  Let them want to work with you to succeed.  It’s better to have a partner in life than to do it yourself.  We can’t look at this Neil Young situation and withdraw from the platform due to the inclusion of Joe Rogan being on the same platform.  We can try and get people to support us on better paying platforms but jumping off one (the biggest one) is literally shooting yourself in the foot.  Most people don’t have the catalogue of songs to live off to afford to say “it’s told us or them."

I love Neil Young.  I love Joni Mitchell.  I have their albums on vinyl and CD and listen on AppleMusic, but they are legends.  They have catalog and they were around and coming up when there was a way to become an artist by working with labels and artist and career development.  We live in a very different time, where many of those options no longer exist.  Time waits for no one and over-saturation cancels out time.  When they released albums and music, distractions were lesser.  People read more, writers wrote more, radio played music more and we had time to digest what we heard.  Gone are the days of doing a paper route to earn money to buy one or two albums to listen to for hours, staring at the art and reading the liner notes and committing because every dollar earned was thought out to spend on something.  We owned music, we didn't rent it.  

I look forward to the day when everyone can take a stand against moral issues, but as struggling artists and small labels, we actually can't.  In 2022, Spotify has 365 Million monthly listeners.  For an up and coming or developing artist or an indie label  removes their music, then they won't even get a mention in a blog and would eliminate the opportunity of being discovered by any potential new fan.  Stakes for creatives are too high.

Do you want to support artists and continue to consume your music via streaming?  Look at the chart who pays better and stream there.  Buy merchandise from artists, go to their shows (when they are in town), follow their social media pages and comment and like posts.  Increase engagement.  Those little gestures help in the way data and algorithms (another word I never thought I would use in my life with regard to music) help these artists move forward and gain more attention.  

You can do so much for so many at the tips of your fingers.