Amplage 0.6: Spotify - Life in a shadow, a non sustainable practice

You might think this is quite a rash and bold statement but I can guarantee you within the next 5 minutes of reading I’ll have it well justified.

We all know that independent musicians from day one should be working themselves like a business through production, promotion, sales and shows. All of which incur some set up fee or ongoing costs. These costs vary depending on the size of the project or how smartly the independent has measured their market and are willing to invest.

Even though spotify keep hush hush the amount of royalties that are paid through spotify, some speculation and leaks show what they are really paying artists.

Revenue 30 million dollar.
70% for royalties: 21 million dollar.
Number of streams 350 million.
Pay out per stream: $21.000.000/350.000.000 = $0.006


That’s 0.006 cents a stream.

I understand independent musicians shouldn’t have high financial hopes when entering the industry but Spotify will never be a sustainable a business practice for independent musicians as releasing music on the service they will struggle to make a dollar yet alone break even with the invested sum.

If this is the growing case, people won’t bother investing their music into the service and will  onto other digital services that have a higher rate of payment such as the iTunes Store.

On a personal reflection I have implemented Spotify into my digital music consumption however only on a free subscription upon which I use it for trying before proceeding to the store to purchase the music.


Author Biography

Nicholas Di Lorenzo.

Having worked throughout Australia and mainly Melbourne with bands, in studio and many different artists I have come to learn the different approaches musicians take on their journey.
I try to implement as much of these into my own thinking and analyses of the music industry and how independent and signed musicians fit into the system.
I have created the Amplage newsletter solely to voice my thoughts and ideas. 

www.facebook.com/NickDiLorenzoMusic

Performance:

Last 4 years throughout Australia.

Rock

  Jazz

Big Bands

Education: Bachelor of Arts in Music Industry at RMIT Melbourne University.

Occupation:
Freelance Studio Engineer and producer
Session Drummer
Barista

Currently in the progress of writing an EP with Ben Calleja for release next year.