I've started buying a few tracks directly. I think I'll continue on this path. I get a high quality local file and the artist gets much more out of it than streaming potentially hundreds of times.
Thankful for the knowledge you're always dropping Colt. Sad Spotify went this route, but at least we see the true colors now. I'm definitely done supporting them, or at least falling back on them HEAVILY. Best of luck to everybody from here on.
Colt - this is not related to this post but I had to say a quick "thank you". The mix on my latest song wasn't quite there and it "almost translated" across different listening platforms, but not quite. Then I remembered "the magic is in the mid range" so I added my Colt Capperrune mid-range EQ filter and mixed to that and... it cleaned that puppy up beautifully!Than you, Sir!
Spotify is the enemy of musicians and music itself. I’ve been pointing this out to artists I work with for years. I would love to see a general strike against Spotify led by major artists, ironically the only ones who speak well of it. Spotify has never taken any step to improve the lot of artists and, as you pointed out, they have taken huge steps to hurt them. That’s who they are.
Thanks for this. I see so many people ignoring how bad Spotify business practices are. Not only that, Spotify is a tech business, and they’ve been putting gobs of money into research on AI/machine learning and music, and unfortunately they have the biggest music library of anywhere else to use for training data. None of this research is going into things to help working musicians.
You're exactly right. What some musicians don't realize or fail to consider in our raging against this machine is that Spotify is in a position to do SOOO much good for music, musicians, and the art/tech community, but yet they just continually choose not to. They are such a large force and a depended upon outlet that they could use their great power/responsibility to create new/deeper connections between artists and their audience, innovating new ways for artists to grow, but instead they continue to lower payouts and further segregate their artists.
@@jboulware Yeah, it’s a rather unfortunate situation. Spotify also is really bad about “appearing” to do a lot for music and musical communities, but most of it is just marketing and research. They are putting out their “free” DAW and other pitch tracking/melody finding software as open source stuff, but it’s all just them breaking into new areas of business. Not to mention, they still work with these shady online distributors, that are entirely unnecessary for distribution of what is almost entirely digital content nowadays. Even iTunes back in the day let any artist send in their material on an actual cd, and put it up in the store for a one time $35 fee, and this was way back in the early days of digital music. I also think a lot of people got so used to pirating music when they were kids, that they think the fact that they actually are paying for a Spotify subscription nowadays is way better. Even other musicians!
Thanks for making this video, Colt! I'm all for Spotify going out of business. The current streaming models seemed to have popped up over night and overtaken the music industry without any chance to vet all the pros and cons. We now know the "cons" of this type of business model. Personally, I think the whole streaming industry needs to be completely overhauled and re-invented.
Welllll ... there goes my $2 a year income. OMG. Hey, thanks, Colt, for the heads-up and great commentary. And, although I truly don't depend of Spotify, this is a good reason to work other services (which I should be doing, and should have been doing for years).
That's what they want the smaller artists to think, but then 3 bucks times 63 million songs becomes 189 million dollars which isn't so small, and Scamify will probably only "distribute" one fourth at most of that to other "real" artists...
@@ConsciousBrosCommunity the maths don’t math. His numbers are based on a huge fallacy, which is that “all songs below 1k are, in fact 1k”. It’s nonsense. Reality is, the vast majority of songs in this category are more likely to be
Thank you for this update Colt. I hope Spotify doesn't retaliate negatively on you for posting it. You have some big balls. I wouldn't put it past them for having some sort of blacklist.
I was just talking with one of my clients… would this mean that potentially if you’re not getting over 1000 plays per year that Spotify will not pay up? It’s just so greedy! It’s infuriating! Thanks for sharing this wisdom with the community. Love your stuff man! Thank you!
Nice one Colt for addressing it. I just scheduled my video for monday, I've issued a takedown of all my music and the 3 other artists I distribute. I hope all other independents follow suite frankly. Whats HYPER fucked up about this is if it was in place this year my personal music under this name would miss out on nearly 23,000 plays. Thats fucked up.
Colt. I agree w you regarding Spotify’s motive. The extra $150,000,000.00 + will go into their pockets not artists. As you stated so well, they have always paid way less to artists than all others and they did try to stop the legislation to increase payments to artists and composers. I think it is time that all artists remove their music from Spotify. But as you also said, the proof will become evident over 2024 and that end result will likely support your effort and your comments. Thanks for taking the time to address this issue Colt. Barry
I get the feeling that the money will be going towards paying off big record label musicians and not directly into Spotify's coffers. Connect the dots...Spotify had to lay off 600 people earlier this year.
Thanks for this. Before I saw this I was thinking about doing what you said about pointing people elsewhere for my music other than Spotify & getting right off Spotify. It would be nice if a lot of artists big & small started doing this, then they might start getting nervous & reconsider purposely shafting & using artists to make money for them.
@@RafaTallicaBR I was planning to move at some point in the future to either Tidal or Deezer for sound quality reasons. But Tidal, seems slightly cheaper. So I guess that means I will move the family plan over soon
@@CraigScottFrost Already done, moved over to Tidal family plan. Even though my sub still runs for 12 days or so. Spotify is gone from all my devices 👍
Colt, thanks for publishing this important message! I'm so pissed at Spotify... it's just WRONG and arrogant and YOUR take is SO RIGHT!. I plan on BOYCOTTING Spotify as of Jan 1. Please do more on this or at least mention "Boycott Spotify!" at the end of your 2024 videos. You have a BIG reach and others will respond in kind. Thanks again.
@@peterbondy exactly and the reason is because they can. If there was a platform with user centric payout model and all artists would start to move there, they would be doing BJs to get them back. Its so frustrating because with user centric model literally every single downside of nowadays streaming would be solved. Small artists wouldnt be competing with big artists, podcasts about how to pick up a girl or fucking playlists with sleeping noices. Everyone would get what they actually deserve.
Hi Colt, This is just another way that the industry has been ripping off artists since the dawn of music. Back in the day (1950S, '60s) we had S.O.B.s like Herman Lubinsky, Morris Levy and many others who made millions STEALING from artists. Phil Spector was another one notorious for stealing royalties, etc. This is just the latest iteration of the age old problem. It's 'interesting ' to watch your generation react to this like it's a new thing. Sad to say, it's as old as dirt. Bill P.
Some of my tracks get above 1000 some get below. And I have songs on multiple distributors just below the threshold of payout. I need every stream payout to count to get paid at all. We have to pay to put our music up and we now might make nothing back. Half the artists below 1,000 streams have more talent than the ones above 1,000,000,000. This is F******* disgrace
How is this legal - licensing the master recordings and songwriting rights cannot suddenly cost them zero - if someone knows (not speculates), please let us know
Quick question here...can Spotify legally do this? I'm curious to see how this develops. Also in response to the "cash out" debate, let's say the cash out point is $25, an artist would also be getting payouts from Apple Music, Tidal, etc, so they WOULD reach $25, Spotify is just $3 of that. So the cash out argument is stupid...ugh. I hope we can fight this. Sounds like they're just afraid of raising their rates $1. Cause if they did, they would make a million more right there.
I agree and basically have the same question, where is the legal obligation they should be under to pay for licensing the music. The licensing is a jungle, but the resultant payment can't just be at zero now, can it?? Would love to learn if anyone knows
There is no substitute for buying/owning recorded music in my opinion. That being said, I think Spotify (and other free/subscription-based streaming services) can be useful in the capacity of what I call a "virtual listening booth." If you find something you like and want to hear more than a couple of times, I strongly encourage supporting the artist and buying it. This is exactly how I've been using Spotify and, out of principle, have never directly given them a cent.
I agree with you Colt, Artists need to be compensated for their original works. Period. Three dollar payout is almost an insult, but at least there has been some sort of compensation. I’m really curious to see if Spotify does double it’s royalties in 2024, for artist getting over 1000 plays per track.
Thanks for shedding some light on this! I've been a Spotify user for a very long time now, and I always knew that Spotify was screwing artists over, but never quite realized to what extent. I will be looking into switching over to Tidal very soon, as I ultimately want to support the artists, and not the greedy record labels, streaming services, and advertisers. We need more of this kind of knowledge in the hands of average music fans so they can make an educated decision when choosing or considering a music streaming service. I know some people just don't care about artists at all, but I suspect the vast majority of people who really use and enjoy music streaming services likely want their favorite artists to succeed. Of course, let's not forget that TH-cam already does this, and has done so for YEARS now. You can't monetize a channel until you have reached a certain view/subscriber threshold, so if we're all bashing Spotify for it, don't forget about TH-cam, because it's essentially the EXACT same thing happening.
Regarding TH-cam, there is a major difference as far as i know. TH-cam has the threshold set as ONE TIME and for ALL songs combined. Meaning once your reach it, you will be monetized going forward with no further limitations. Spotify is ANNUALLY and for each songs individually. Meaning you will have to get the 1K streams for each individual songs every year and so any song that will not reach the threshold will not be monetized whole year. So these are very different scenarios.
Spotify are not the 1st to do this, many of the "collective rights organizations" have done this in the past - and it has NEVER worked as advertised, ALWAYS been a scam and a way to screw the little guy, and distribute stolen money to whoever they want to. So, Spotify should be avoided by artists. It may sound utopian, but the public can follow and has followed, throughout history. Put your music on the streaming services that pay 1-for-1 what the artist earns, be it pennies or millions. And tell your audience where they can find your music. Having some balls and not following the herd instinct is never a bad thing, as history teaches us. 🤷🏼♂️ Good video, well done. Do keep pushing this topic and angle, it's the right thing to do! 👍🏼👊🏼
so basically we pay for the rich guys ?????????????? my last major album Pandemic streamed 181000 times in two years across all platforms, in total, I earned about 200 pounds UK, Spotify paid the least, the album took me 7 months to make, and so was a labour of love. Having been a studio owner and producer for 30 plus years, this is absolutely crazy; how can we develop new artists etc, or encourage good release behaviour? Spotify is BS, _ basically make music for nothing, grow Spotifys library, build careers on hopium, ? no more push for Spotify and I will cancel my personal subscription as well. what a crock of shit this is.
I’m about to release a new album. I’ll be putting it everywhere except Spotify. I doubt they will care, cause in their eyes, I’m not a “real artist”. But I will feel better. How did they ever become so dominant anyway?
The worst thing is that people don't care, I have friends that love music and are aware of how Spotify screws artists and they don't care. I have friends that are musicians and artists and have their music on Spotify, they know about how much Spotify rips off artists and they still promote their music on Spotify, they still keep using Spotify as a consumer instead of looking for better options. The sad thing is that artists are part of the problem too, cause they are fine with this
Spotify is great for the user and shit for the artist and for the music. The money side seems clear to me, a business that is really bad for one side is not a buisness that will last. There is the music side too: Will we have a distributor decide how long a song shoud be? Whether its starts with a beautiful intro or whether it needs a recorder solo in the middle? Just imagine "Dark side of the moon" coming out today, it would have no chance just for how it starts. I love your conclusion: STOP advertising your spotify links, its modern slavery. If we would all do that, Spotify would be obselete quicker than you think and there are other options out there, you mentioned some, I may add youtube, at least it got me a lot of gigs.
I don't make enough to live on from Spotify, i made $49 last year from streaming, but everyone has the right to earn money from their music,if someone listened to your song,you should get paid even if it is only $3 a year. Spotify it's just the new gatekeepers in the music biz, once it was the record labels and radio,now it's Spotify and they are not out for the artist,just out from themselves making the almighty dollar and screwing the artist as it has always been,nothing has changed but the gatekeeper.
Spotify will create their own music AI artists and make $ from that. If we don’t all pull out we will all be casualties. This is a step in that direction. Netflix does it. It used to cost “a dime in the box to play a song about New Orleans” back in the day. $3 for 1,000 streams in the first place is a joke artists should have learned long ago. If Spotify didn’t make enough to pay their artists then they weren’t a viable business and a terrible employer. Why does anyone stay? I get more emails giving music away that at least has fans buy a shirt than I do having no clue who is even listening to my music for next to nothing. I don’t buy it either Colt. I’m with you here. Cheers!
The only reason why my music is on Spotify, is that my whole audience uses Spotify. But i still do not like or condone Spotify's arrogant way of treating artists and music!
I have already stopped pushing Spotify a while ago, as I have always far more from Apple than Spotify. Now quite honestly Spotify can go suck it. This has to be illegal, surely? Not paying someone for their work!!
I deleted all my content and closed my account on the news that Spotify, once again, has stepped on the independent musician. This is why all music sounds the same and innovation is both discouraged and crushed. Adios, let others work for a 0.0003 of a penny!
As long s people keep using Spotify nothing will change. You will still upload your stuff there to gain ever little piece of reach, especially as a small artist. If big labels would stop, things might change. But they won’t. That’s why they do this, they will get trough with it, and after a few months everybody forgets it anyway
As Meat Loaf once said, "You took the words right out of my mouth". Who are they to decide what a 'real' artist is? Let's start demoting them asap. I also think this will have something to do with the major labels.
Spotify will always only be in it for their own interests.. that’s what big tech companies have always done and will always do. It’s disappointing this is the way they’re choosing to do it, and the royalty rates definitely need to be way higher! While it is pretty frustrating for artists trying to start out, I think it also put the onus back on us to be out there promoting our music and putting in the work. 1000 streams isn’t really that much if you’re working hard at it. Also, as a fans and listeners there’s heaps of different ways to support your favourite artists!
The angle they're taking with this spin is hilarious. "We're not gonna pay these artists so we can pay artists more." This reminds me of a job I had years ago where I asked my boss for a raise and he goes "Well, we can't give out raises right now because we traditionally give out too many raises and leave no room for anyone to advance." And I was like "So, you can't give me a raise because you give too many raises?" Even if Spotify did turn around and pay other artists more, it still sucks for the folks starting at the bottom. If these streaming services only benefit the successful and established artists, then we're in no better place than the old music publishing industry pre-MP3 era. In fact, I think it's actually worse.
Now, if we however assume that Spotify will distribute all the money that would have gone out to the unsuccessful tracks to the successful releases then I am all in for this change. Because to be fair, earning up to $3 pr song a year is basically nothing and so it doesn't really matter to the artist in the end. TH-cam has been doing the same thing since... I don't now but basically forever. This will (again, if we assume all the money gets distributed to the artists) benefit the artists who actually are having listeners and fans.
I'm a semi-professional musician myself who has written a couple of songs. I know they're not good enough to post so I don't bother but I stream music on Pandora instead of Spotify.
You are right. It screws over new artists like my wife’s band. They are super talented but not big. It sucks that they will take their scraps (little money) and redistribute them. It should be illegal.
The artists only revolve around spotify because it’s what the listeners use, and it’s true from the consumer stand point spotify is great. Other platforms need to catch up in terms of even profile personalisation for artists to really allow interaction with listeners. What streaming platform has anything close to spotify for artists?
Spotify is a part owner of DistroKid (if I'm not mistaken). So I have to pay Spotify for uploading my music, and then they're not giving me anything back when (if) people listen to my music.
sounds like the ASCAP live venue licenses. Worked more than one place where some rep came in bullying the owners for having cover bands or playing their own CDs. And then acting like that money goes into a slush fund to spread around after the fact.
I am an independent recording artist with several albums on Spotify. This is robbing independent artists. I am at the point of removing my contents on Spotify and end business with them permanently. I even had an album removed off of Spotify. This is dead wrong.
I agree! Most independent artists are going to be relying on a niche following anyway… Why should we be directing people to Spotify when there are so many other platforms which pay more and sound better?
Bro ,. you are totally right.. We gona wait and see if these amounts double, but its true, man you forgot a few other that def pay more then all of those you mentioned. The problem is that alot of these other platform dont have say, "Artist programs" and Tools to promote. Spotify has a few niknaks, but end of the day , it's about the money for them, so artist might has well do the same. But it would be dope to have people buying direct.. Salute
I have spent thousands of dollars producing music just this year - and a typical song takes months to finish. Despite that effort, the music rarely gets any organic plays on Spotify but I can swear to you that it’s not white noise or AI generated. It’s such a f-king insult to deny payouts - even if it’s 5 cents - because I worked my ass off for YEARs to learn how to make music and it’s part of the product the Spotify sells. This platform is such a joke. Just today I heard a talk by a British music industry expert and he was reaffirming that the big record labels that complained so much about Spotify at the beginning are taking in record profits every month and they are gaming the algorithm in their favour so that they are actually the parasite that hoovers the income pool.
This is crazy man... sure, the payments are super low, but us smaller artists are working hard to break into the 1000+ streams. Some of us spend our savings on studio time (yes, need 100,000+ streams to really 'make' money) but it is just nice knowing that everyone is rewarded. If someone, say has a 10 track album out, and it gets 900 streams per year = 9000 total streams, that still wouldn't be considered as the plays don't equate to 1k per tune... this sucks. This is absolutely confirmed for 2024 right?
If all artists would shift together all their work from one place to another, then these companies would think twice for such pity moves like this. If I were on a position of influence within the music industry, I would heavily promote such behavior to just leave alone the services that care more about their own money than doing business in a fair and just way.
As someone who has just started putting music on streaming platforms (including spotify,) this whole thing is pissing me off. seeing anything like this to basically say F* smaller/newer artists is truly wrong. really stupid imo
I have already pulled my music from TikTok because I wasn't getting paid for dumb videos people made over there, I can pull Spotify down as well. I am a folk musician and seriously I never have made anything off streaming. I have made more money selling direct to fans, using BandCamp and CD sales than I ever did off any of this stuff.Spotify wouldn't have anything to make money off of if we all just pulled our catalogues. Wouldn't it be funny if this bit em real hard and the lost revenue? Maybe Taylor Swift will pull her stunts again, that sure would be something special... I use Apple Music because it intergrates with Siri better in the car when I listen to most of my music anyway.
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Spotify never fails to disappoint us!!! Congrats!
"Stop doing business with people who are trying to screw you". Colt Capperrune
Great advice!
I forgot I had said that in a previous rant on Spotify. Great memory!
@@ColtCapperrunethat is a true external memory upgrade 😂
I've started buying a few tracks directly. I think I'll continue on this path. I get a high quality local file and the artist gets much more out of it than streaming potentially hundreds of times.
I think I'll do the same
We should all start doing that,push Spotify aside
👍 Either this or buying CDs (and merch) at concerts. A signed CD is also a nice souvenir from a great show.
Very true. I started selling music on Bandcamp. Even if only some friends and family will buy your track you’ll make more than on Spotify lol
Thnxxx for being real and smart
Thank you!! great Video!!! Cheers from Atlanta :)
Thankful for the knowledge you're always dropping Colt. Sad Spotify went this route, but at least we see the true colors now. I'm definitely done supporting them, or at least falling back on them HEAVILY. Best of luck to everybody from here on.
Jesus what is it some drug to you? That's addict thinking. Either use it or don't.
Colt - this is not related to this post but I had to say a quick "thank you". The mix on my latest song wasn't quite there and it "almost translated" across different listening platforms, but not quite. Then I remembered "the magic is in the mid range" so I added my Colt Capperrune mid-range EQ filter and mixed to that and... it cleaned that puppy up beautifully!Than you, Sir!
Spotify is the enemy of musicians and music itself. I’ve been pointing this out to artists I work with for years. I would love to see a general strike against Spotify led by major artists, ironically the only ones who speak well of it. Spotify has never taken any step to improve the lot of artists and, as you pointed out, they have taken huge steps to hurt them. That’s who they are.
Thanks for this. I see so many people ignoring how bad Spotify business practices are. Not only that, Spotify is a tech business, and they’ve been putting gobs of money into research on AI/machine learning and music, and unfortunately they have the biggest music library of anywhere else to use for training data. None of this research is going into things to help working musicians.
You're exactly right. What some musicians don't realize or fail to consider in our raging against this machine is that Spotify is in a position to do SOOO much good for music, musicians, and the art/tech community, but yet they just continually choose not to. They are such a large force and a depended upon outlet that they could use their great power/responsibility to create new/deeper connections between artists and their audience, innovating new ways for artists to grow, but instead they continue to lower payouts and further segregate their artists.
@@jboulware Yeah, it’s a rather unfortunate situation. Spotify also is really bad about “appearing” to do a lot for music and musical communities, but most of it is just marketing and research. They are putting out their “free” DAW and other pitch tracking/melody finding software as open source stuff, but it’s all just them breaking into new areas of business. Not to mention, they still work with these shady online distributors, that are entirely unnecessary for distribution of what is almost entirely digital content nowadays. Even iTunes back in the day let any artist send in their material on an actual cd, and put it up in the store for a one time $35 fee, and this was way back in the early days of digital music.
I also think a lot of people got so used to pirating music when they were kids, that they think the fact that they actually are paying for a Spotify subscription nowadays is way better. Even other musicians!
Shared to my social media. Give 'em hell Colt.
Thanks for making this video, Colt! I'm all for Spotify going out of business. The current streaming models seemed to have popped up over night and overtaken the music industry without any chance to vet all the pros and cons. We now know the "cons" of this type of business model. Personally, I think the whole streaming industry needs to be completely overhauled and re-invented.
Welllll ... there goes my $2 a year income. OMG. Hey, thanks, Colt, for the heads-up and great commentary. And, although I truly don't depend of Spotify, this is a good reason to work other services (which I should be doing, and should have been doing for years).
That's what they want the smaller artists to think, but then 3 bucks times 63 million songs becomes 189 million dollars which isn't so small, and Scamify will probably only "distribute" one fourth at most of that to other "real" artists...
@@ConsciousBrosCommunity the maths don’t math. His numbers are based on a huge fallacy, which is that “all songs below 1k are, in fact 1k”. It’s nonsense. Reality is, the vast majority of songs in this category are more likely to be
Thank you for this update Colt. I hope Spotify doesn't retaliate negatively on you for posting it. You have some big balls. I wouldn't put it past them for having some sort of blacklist.
I’ve always refused to have a Spotify account due to the low payment to artists. This just makes me think I made the right decision.
Agreed!
I was just talking with one of my clients… would this mean that potentially if you’re not getting over 1000 plays per year that Spotify will not pay up? It’s just so greedy! It’s infuriating! Thanks for sharing this wisdom with the community. Love your stuff man! Thank you!
Biggest problem with this Spotify will take an inch today, what's stopping them from taking a mile tommorrow 😡
Thank you for the heads up Colt. I think a lot of artists may have never been privy to this information had you not have shared it with us.
Nice one Colt for addressing it. I just scheduled my video for monday, I've issued a takedown of all my music and the 3 other artists I distribute. I hope all other independents follow suite frankly. Whats HYPER fucked up about this is if it was in place this year my personal music under this name would miss out on nearly 23,000 plays. Thats fucked up.
Thank you for this info. I am getting ready to release a new single and this will help me to shift where I will try to promote my music more.
Colt. I agree w you regarding Spotify’s motive. The extra $150,000,000.00 + will go into their pockets not artists. As you stated so well, they have always paid way less to artists than all others and they did try to stop the legislation to increase payments to artists and composers. I think it is time that all artists remove their music from Spotify. But as you also said, the proof will become evident over 2024 and that end result will likely support your effort and your comments.
Thanks for taking the time to address this issue Colt.
Barry
I get the feeling that the money will be going towards paying off big record label musicians and not directly into Spotify's coffers. Connect the dots...Spotify had to lay off 600 people earlier this year.
Thanks for this. Before I saw this I was thinking about doing what you said about pointing people elsewhere for my music other than Spotify & getting right off Spotify. It would be nice if a lot of artists big & small started doing this, then they might start getting nervous & reconsider purposely shafting & using artists to make money for them.
💯
100% agree and its sad that so many artists feel forced put up with so much bs
I shall reconsider my subscription
I wonder how Spotify would react if I'd stop paying for my subscription because I am going to decide what they are worth.
Go on for Tidal, much better audio quality
@@RafaTallicaBR I was planning to move at some point in the future to either Tidal or Deezer for sound quality reasons. But Tidal, seems slightly cheaper. So I guess that means I will move the family plan over soon
@@CraigScottFrost Already done, moved over to Tidal family plan. Even though my sub still runs for 12 days or so. Spotify is gone from all my devices 👍
Right on Colt ,totally agree
Stayed off Spotify since it’s inception and no plan to ever support them!
I literally dont understand it either.. I removed all my links (not taken my music down) but promoting it on apple music instead.. !
that's it i'm gonna cancel my spotify premium plan and uninstall and never use it again untill they do the right thing
Spotify is a rip off to all artists.
Colt, thanks for publishing this important message! I'm so pissed at Spotify... it's just WRONG and arrogant and YOUR take is SO RIGHT!. I plan on BOYCOTTING Spotify as of Jan 1. Please do more on this or at least mention "Boycott Spotify!" at the end of your 2024 videos. You have a BIG reach and others will respond in kind. Thanks again.
I'm glad to see more creators speaking up on this topic! Spotify is trash for this.
Spotify have always trash and are now just doubling down on their love of gifting on the backs of their content creators.
@@peterbondy exactly and the reason is because they can. If there was a platform with user centric payout model and all artists would start to move there, they would be doing BJs to get them back. Its so frustrating because with user centric model literally every single downside of nowadays streaming would be solved. Small artists wouldnt be competing with big artists, podcasts about how to pick up a girl or fucking playlists with sleeping noices. Everyone would get what they actually deserve.
Thx for this knowledge Colt, much appreciated Sir 🙏
What they're doing is absolutely disgusting. They're bowing to the big labels. This will kill small artists.
Hi Colt,
This is just another way that the industry has been ripping off artists since the dawn of music.
Back in the day (1950S, '60s) we had S.O.B.s like Herman Lubinsky, Morris Levy and many others who made millions STEALING from artists.
Phil Spector was another one notorious for stealing royalties, etc.
This is just the latest iteration of the age old problem.
It's 'interesting ' to watch your generation react to this like it's a new thing.
Sad to say, it's as old as dirt.
Bill P.
IT PISSES ME OF!! :( I AM FURIOUS! :)
Great commentary.
Your channel is very informative.
Been a fan since your 10k subs.
Salute!
Some of my tracks get above 1000 some get below. And I have songs on multiple distributors just below the threshold of payout. I need every stream payout to count to get paid at all. We have to pay to put our music up and we now might make nothing back. Half the artists below 1,000 streams have more talent than the ones above 1,000,000,000. This is F******* disgrace
How is this legal - licensing the master recordings and songwriting rights cannot suddenly cost them zero - if someone knows (not speculates), please let us know
Quick question here...can Spotify legally do this? I'm curious to see how this develops. Also in response to the "cash out" debate, let's say the cash out point is $25, an artist would also be getting payouts from Apple Music, Tidal, etc, so they WOULD reach $25, Spotify is just $3 of that. So the cash out argument is stupid...ugh. I hope we can fight this. Sounds like they're just afraid of raising their rates $1. Cause if they did, they would make a million more right there.
I agree and basically have the same question, where is the legal obligation they should be under to pay for licensing the music. The licensing is a jungle, but the resultant payment can't just be at zero now, can it?? Would love to learn if anyone knows
Thanks Colt, I had not heard this info.
Thanks to informing me and many others.
thats exactly why you'll never EVER see me put any of my work on Spotify
There is no substitute for buying/owning recorded music in my opinion. That being said, I think Spotify (and other free/subscription-based streaming services) can be useful in the capacity of what I call a "virtual listening booth." If you find something you like and want to hear more than a couple of times, I strongly encourage supporting the artist and buying it. This is exactly how I've been using Spotify and, out of principle, have never directly given them a cent.
I'm completely aware of this fact, but I still won't give Spotify any of my own money.@@CraigScottFrost
I agree with you Colt, Artists need to be compensated for their original works. Period. Three dollar payout is almost an insult, but at least there has been some sort of compensation. I’m really curious to see if Spotify does double it’s royalties in 2024, for artist getting over 1000 plays per track.
Thanks for shedding some light on this! I've been a Spotify user for a very long time now, and I always knew that Spotify was screwing artists over, but never quite realized to what extent. I will be looking into switching over to Tidal very soon, as I ultimately want to support the artists, and not the greedy record labels, streaming services, and advertisers.
We need more of this kind of knowledge in the hands of average music fans so they can make an educated decision when choosing or considering a music streaming service. I know some people just don't care about artists at all, but I suspect the vast majority of people who really use and enjoy music streaming services likely want their favorite artists to succeed.
Of course, let's not forget that TH-cam already does this, and has done so for YEARS now. You can't monetize a channel until you have reached a certain view/subscriber threshold, so if we're all bashing Spotify for it, don't forget about TH-cam, because it's essentially the EXACT same thing happening.
good point about TH-cam - they just didn't take away something they already offered
Regarding TH-cam, there is a major difference as far as i know. TH-cam has the threshold set as ONE TIME and for ALL songs combined. Meaning once your reach it, you will be monetized going forward with no further limitations. Spotify is ANNUALLY and for each songs individually. Meaning you will have to get the 1K streams for each individual songs every year and so any song that will not reach the threshold will not be monetized whole year. So these are very different scenarios.
Spotify are not the 1st to do this, many of the "collective rights organizations" have done this in the past - and it has NEVER worked as advertised, ALWAYS been a scam and a way to screw the little guy, and distribute stolen money to whoever they want to.
So, Spotify should be avoided by artists.
It may sound utopian, but the public can follow and has followed, throughout history. Put your music on the streaming services that pay 1-for-1 what the artist earns, be it pennies or millions.
And tell your audience where they can find your music.
Having some balls and not following the herd instinct is never a bad thing, as history teaches us.
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Good video, well done.
Do keep pushing this topic and angle, it's the right thing to do!
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One stream, no matter how small the payment, it belongs to the artist. What a bunch of crap! STOP POSTING TO SPOTIFY!! Thanks Colt.
“It’s a privilege to have our music available on streaming services.” -Said no one
I think its time to promote something that actually pays us artist genuinely! and i am on it!
@@CraigScottFrost your website and your brand
so basically we pay for the rich guys ?????????????? my last major album Pandemic streamed 181000 times in two years across all platforms, in total, I earned about 200 pounds UK, Spotify paid the least, the album took me 7 months to make, and so was a labour of love. Having been a studio owner and producer for 30 plus years, this is absolutely crazy; how can we develop new artists etc, or encourage good release behaviour? Spotify is BS, _ basically make music for nothing, grow Spotifys library, build careers on hopium, ? no more push for Spotify and I will cancel my personal subscription as well. what a crock of shit this is.
Explanation are very clear....keep it like that even when you get popular...
Thank you for always keeping it real, Colt. Maybe it's time to start listening on another platform...
Amazing video summing it all up! Very true! Great opinion as well 👍
I’m about to release a new album. I’ll be putting it everywhere except Spotify. I doubt they will care, cause in their eyes, I’m not a “real artist”. But I will feel better. How did they ever become so dominant anyway?
I use Tidal
Think I’m going to cancel my Spotify subscription! I honestly can’t see them lasting the next 5 years.
It doesn’t count as paying artists “more” if that money comes from not paying artists fairly
The worst thing is that people don't care, I have friends that love music and are aware of how Spotify screws artists and they don't care. I have friends that are musicians and artists and have their music on Spotify, they know about how much Spotify rips off artists and they still promote their music on Spotify, they still keep using Spotify as a consumer instead of looking for better options. The sad thing is that artists are part of the problem too, cause they are fine with this
Spotify is great for the user and shit for the artist and for the music. The money side seems clear to me, a business that is really bad for one side is not a buisness that will last. There is the music side too: Will we have a distributor decide how long a song shoud be? Whether its starts with a beautiful intro or whether it needs a recorder solo in the middle? Just imagine "Dark side of the moon" coming out today, it would have no chance just for how it starts.
I love your conclusion: STOP advertising your spotify links, its modern slavery. If we would all do that, Spotify would be obselete quicker than you think and there are other options out there, you mentioned some, I may add youtube, at least it got me a lot of gigs.
I don't make enough to live on from Spotify, i made $49 last year from streaming, but everyone has the right to earn money from their music,if someone listened to your song,you should get paid even if it is only $3 a year. Spotify it's just the new gatekeepers in the music biz, once it was the record labels and radio,now it's Spotify and they are not out for the artist,just out from themselves making the almighty dollar and screwing the artist as it has always been,nothing has changed but the gatekeeper.
I stopped Spotify already...
This is going to affect far more people than they realize. Maybe it’s time to leave Spotify all together.
I’m pulling my music from Spotify
Spotify will create their own music AI artists and make $ from that. If we don’t all pull out we will all be casualties. This is a step in that direction. Netflix does it. It used to cost “a dime in the box to play a song about New Orleans” back in the day. $3 for 1,000 streams in the first place is a joke artists should have learned long ago.
If Spotify didn’t make enough to pay their artists then they weren’t a viable business and a terrible employer. Why does anyone stay? I get more emails giving music away that at least has fans buy a shirt than I do having no clue who is even listening to my music for next to nothing. I don’t buy it either Colt. I’m with you here. Cheers!
The only reason why my music is on Spotify, is that my whole audience uses Spotify. But i still do not like or condone Spotify's arrogant way of treating artists and music!
100% agreed, me too.
I have already stopped pushing Spotify a while ago, as I have always far more from Apple than Spotify. Now quite honestly Spotify can go suck it. This has to be illegal, surely? Not paying someone for their work!!
Thank you caperone!
Thank you for speaking up! Spotify free for a year and loving it. Apple Music all the way.
I deleted all my content and closed my account on the news that Spotify, once again, has stepped on the independent musician. This is why all music sounds the same and innovation is both discouraged and crushed. Adios, let others work for a 0.0003 of a penny!
As long s people keep using Spotify nothing will change. You will still upload your stuff there to gain ever little piece of reach, especially as a small artist. If big labels would stop, things might change. But they won’t. That’s why they do this, they will get trough with it, and after a few months everybody forgets it anyway
As Meat Loaf once said, "You took the words right out of my mouth". Who are they to decide what a 'real' artist is? Let's start demoting them asap. I also think this will have something to do with the major labels.
Agreed! Jump ship, People!
Great piece as always. You're becoming the Dave Grohl of the studio, bro! Love to work with you some day! : )
Spotify will always only be in it for their own interests.. that’s what big tech companies have always done and will always do. It’s disappointing this is the way they’re choosing to do it, and the royalty rates definitely need to be way higher! While it is pretty frustrating for artists trying to start out, I think it also put the onus back on us to be out there promoting our music and putting in the work. 1000 streams isn’t really that much if you’re working hard at it.
Also, as a fans and listeners there’s heaps of different ways to support your favourite artists!
100% Spotify is hot trash. My prediction is they will be dead or sold in 2 years, Great vid. Thanks.
Side note…tried going to your site via the link in the description and was met with a dead end
The angle they're taking with this spin is hilarious. "We're not gonna pay these artists so we can pay artists more." This reminds me of a job I had years ago where I asked my boss for a raise and he goes "Well, we can't give out raises right now because we traditionally give out too many raises and leave no room for anyone to advance." And I was like "So, you can't give me a raise because you give too many raises?" Even if Spotify did turn around and pay other artists more, it still sucks for the folks starting at the bottom. If these streaming services only benefit the successful and established artists, then we're in no better place than the old music publishing industry pre-MP3 era. In fact, I think it's actually worse.
Now, if we however assume that Spotify will distribute all the money that would have gone out to the unsuccessful tracks to the successful releases then I am all in for this change.
Because to be fair, earning up to $3 pr song a year is basically nothing and so it doesn't really matter to the artist in the end. TH-cam has been doing the same thing since... I don't now but basically forever.
This will (again, if we assume all the money gets distributed to the artists) benefit the artists who actually are having listeners and fans.
I'm a semi-professional musician myself who has written a couple of songs. I know they're not good enough to post so I don't bother but I stream music on Pandora instead of Spotify.
You are right. It screws over new artists like my wife’s band. They are super talented but not big. It sucks that they will take their scraps (little money) and redistribute them. It should be illegal.
Yes. And what happened to them being legally obliged to pay for licensing the music?
People need to get rid of Spotify if you quit giving them contact they have nothing
The artists only revolve around spotify because it’s what the listeners use, and it’s true from the consumer stand point spotify is great. Other platforms need to catch up in terms of even profile personalisation for artists to really allow interaction with listeners. What streaming platform has anything close to spotify for artists?
A class action lawsuit is coming.
Spotify is a part owner of DistroKid (if I'm not mistaken). So I have to pay Spotify for uploading my music, and then they're not giving me anything back when (if) people listen to my music.
sounds like the ASCAP live venue licenses. Worked more than one place where some rep came in bullying the owners for having cover bands or playing their own CDs. And then acting like that money goes into a slush fund to spread around after the fact.
Artists hate Spotify but frustratingly lots of listeners only use Spotify. Getting them to move is difficult.
I am an independent recording artist with several albums on Spotify. This is robbing independent artists. I am at the point of removing my contents on Spotify and end business with them permanently. I even had an album removed off of Spotify. This is dead wrong.
I hate that I’m not considered a real artist cause I don’t get a ton of streams
I agree! Most independent artists are going to be relying on a niche following anyway… Why should we be directing people to Spotify when there are so many other platforms which pay more and sound better?
Thanks Colt! I was on the fence whether it was good or not, now I know... I actually cancelled my membership after this video. Vote with your dollars.
Bro ,. you are totally right.. We gona wait and see if these amounts double, but its true, man you forgot a few other that def pay more then all of those you mentioned. The problem is that alot of these other platform dont have say, "Artist programs" and Tools to promote. Spotify has a few niknaks, but end of the day , it's about the money for them, so artist might has well do the same. But it would be dope to have people buying direct.. Salute
Shame on Spotify! -Pay artist more because you won’t exist without artist!
I have spent thousands of dollars producing music just this year - and a typical song takes months to finish. Despite that effort, the music rarely gets any organic plays on Spotify but I can swear to you that it’s not white noise or AI generated. It’s such a f-king insult to deny payouts - even if it’s 5 cents - because I worked my ass off for YEARs to learn how to make music and it’s part of the product the Spotify sells. This platform is such a joke. Just today I heard a talk by a British music industry expert and he was reaffirming that the big record labels that complained so much about Spotify at the beginning are taking in record profits every month and they are gaming the algorithm in their favour so that they are actually the parasite that hoovers the income pool.
Amen Colt. 100% accurate take IMO.
This is crazy man... sure, the payments are super low, but us smaller artists are working hard to break into the 1000+ streams. Some of us spend our savings on studio time (yes, need 100,000+ streams to really 'make' money) but it is just nice knowing that everyone is rewarded. If someone, say has a 10 track album out, and it gets 900 streams per year = 9000 total streams, that still wouldn't be considered as the plays don't equate to 1k per tune... this sucks. This is absolutely confirmed for 2024 right?
If all artists would shift together all their work from one place to another, then these companies would think twice for such pity moves like this. If I were on a position of influence within the music industry, I would heavily promote such behavior to just leave alone the services that care more about their own money than doing business in a fair and just way.
This is so true !
As someone who has just started putting music on streaming platforms (including spotify,) this whole thing is pissing me off. seeing anything like this to basically say F* smaller/newer artists is truly wrong. really stupid imo
Tidal is so much better, soundquality wise too
I have already pulled my music from TikTok because I wasn't getting paid for dumb videos people made over there, I can pull Spotify down as well. I am a folk musician and seriously I never have made anything off streaming. I have made more money selling direct to fans, using BandCamp and CD sales than I ever did off any of this stuff.Spotify wouldn't have anything to make money off of if we all just pulled our catalogues. Wouldn't it be funny if this bit em real hard and the lost revenue? Maybe Taylor Swift will pull her stunts again, that sure would be something special... I use Apple Music because it intergrates with Siri better in the car when I listen to most of my music anyway.
Tidal is the best