It works if you’ve got thousands or millions of songs - it all adds up," Mulligan says. "Streaming works for record labels," says Mulligan. "There is nothing you can do about streaming royalty payments that will make it look like record sales again. Mark Mulligan, managing director and streaming analyst at Midia, has followed the Justice at Spotify protests and Ek's response to them, and he's got bad news for the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers. With an estimated 32% share of the market, Spotify is the dominant service its closest competitor, Apple Music, has an 18% share, as tallied by media tracking firm Midia Research. The actual recording artists? "They're keeping anywhere between 5% and a quarter."Īs of the first quarter of 2020, about 400 million people worldwide subscribed to one or more music streaming services.
Moreover, notes Werde, within the pie chart detailing the total revenue that Spotify generates through music streaming, "roughly 70% of it is going to rights holders," he says. Now, over the last four or so years we've seen growth." Once streaming took hold, those losses flattened out. "Before there was streaming, the business had lost revenue for 15 straight years. "When you look at the big picture of the music industry over the last 10 or 15 years, Spotify saved the music business," says Bill Werde, director of the Bandier Program in Recording and Entertainment Industries at Syracuse University and former editorial director of Billboard. What would "Justice at Spotify" look like? And more important, say defenders of Spotify's model, where exactly is the injustice? "Spotify generates more money for rights holders than any other streaming service: As of 2020, Spotify has paid over $23 billion in royalties to rights holders - including over $5 billion in 2020 alone, up from $3.3 billion in 2017." The statistic was included in an initiative called "Loud & Clear," which is aimed at rebutting some of those claims and offering further transparency for artists. The company issued a statement not long after the protest touting its record payouts. It would also bring Spotify in line with competitors Apple, Amazon Music and Tidal. Holter said that Spotify increasing royalties to a penny per stream would send a clear, graspable message to its subscribers that it values the artists who serve as the foundation of the company. The announcement, coupled with the artists' protests, puts further pressure on Spotify to follow suit.
On Friday, Apple Music, the world's second-largest streaming service, wrote in a letter obtained by the Wall Street Journal that it had increased its royalty payout to an average of a penny per stream. It’s such a small percentage,” Paul McCartney said during a recent episode of the BBC Radio 4 program "The Price of Song." “I think it’s harder for artists now, unfortunately. On a broader scale, the union aims "to tackle the inequality of corporate power in the streaming environment and seek to build solidarity with other workers engaged in this struggle."Īt least one billionaire singer and songwriter seems to agree with their mission. "At that point, everybody's being thrown out of work, essentially, and it didn't look like we would be included in any of the government relief plans."Īs the talk continued, an issue they could all relate to came up: what they considered paltry royalty checks received from Spotify, and the way in which the platform's algorithmic recommendation system seemed rigged against them and in favor of major-label affiliated artists. "We were just talking about what to do," Krukowski says. For others, it was a way to channel restless energy or educate themselves on the business. For some, the communal video get-togethers offered a chance for commiseration or support. Damon Krukowski, a writer, artist advocate and former drummer for Galaxie 500, said during a recent Zoom video call with Holter that the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers was born of necessity.
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