It pays four tenths of a tenth of a cent per stream ($0.004), while raking in billions of profit each year.
I think you’re confusing Spotify with Apple or Google, just last year:
Spotify Just Turned an Annual Profit for the First Time Ever
This is the same year it paid out
its collective payments to the music industry for 2024 totaled $10 billion.
10 billion in a single year, not bad for a business model that’s “exploitation”
One of the things people struggle to understand is that it’s not the 70’s anymore, there is more music being uploaded every minute that you can listen to in a year, this has a diluting effect on the value of the thing being uploaded
On top of this piracy which is what Spotify is competing against, like the true cheapskates who don’t care about artists at all and simply rip youtube videos don’t pay artists a cent (or $15 a month, 70% of which goes to the music industry)
Listen to music on whatever service, then if you like the artists music - buy the album, or the track / single. Sure, you may support fewer artists this way, but each artist gets paid literally 2500 times as much (album averages 9.99).
I do agree with this though
Yes, that’s how the algo works, unfortunately most people have no taste in music, if the people suddenly decide that avant garde orchestral metal is popular, then those artists will make more money as their plays and share of the pie goes up
Welcome to the music industry ;)
https://www.salon.com/2000/06/14/love_7/
That said this is a very specific argument to make, you said
Now you’re saying, yes many people make lots of money and I saw no disagreement that the music industry raking in 10 billion in a year benefits from Spotify BUT new and non-popular artists find it tough to make money and that’s exploitation
The algorithm is simple, the more listens you get, the bigger the pie you have, the more you get paid.
The reality is that small/new artists are now competing in a field that is flooded, it’s hard to complain of exploitation if you are simply trying to swim in an ocean and finding it difficult
It sucks but this is life in the 21st century with computers, it’s also not going to get better with AI allowing people who can’t work photoshop to make pictures and people who can’t work logic pro to make music
I also give Spotify credit for music discovery: https://aussie.zone/post/19441027/16055498
It has never been easier for people to go outside the box and discover new music, it’s just a shame most people don’t