The real problem is the vast majority of people think they should get music for free. Screw that! If an artist has an audience for their music they should be able to make a living from it. This is certainly not the case with Spotify.
Exactly, I say this all the time. The general population has decided that it's entitled to essentially all the music ever recorded for ten bucks a month. 🙄
We just signed with Spotify to release our bands albums that we recorded 25 years ago. We dont expect to make much money, but anything is better than nothing. When we had a record contract, we didn't make any money then, either.
Two albums ago, my band was contacted by a few streaming platforms about going "digital". After reading the terms of service, we decided not to negotiate or deal with any of them. My advice to anyone considering their services to get a lawyer to explain the terms. Make sure you understand any contract you read.
Venues are even worse. Insane ticket price gouging and wanting a cut of merch sales. No one is forced to use Spotify. Every one is beholden to the whims of the venue.
Another great video thanks. And yet another example of profit over people fueling our greedy consumerist lifestyles. I respect the system of capitalism and understand it intimately, and my disdain for excess profits comes directly from that understanding. Someone, somewhere inside of Spotify should have said “this is wrong. We are growing profits to meet shareholders expectations by deceiving the people who create the content that makes us money in the first place” There is responsible capitalism and there is greed. We have long lost the ways of responsible capitalism and I can’t think of a single publicly listed company who does it the right way. Greed has choked out integrity in the global economy, it’s all but lost.
This sums up a lot of my sentiment. The only thing I’ll add is that you have a lot of good people working in most companies but ultimately all people are guided by incentives and survival. It’s the system that needs some reform
@ 100% agree with you. Ironic we followed a similar path (earn early, retire young, play music & have fun with your wife/best friend). Perhaps our similar experiences shaped our worldview to be a bit more empathetic and understanding of just how much abundance we have, and how much of it is kept away from the people who need it most. Spotify’s CEO & exec team should have a stated mission of enriching creators, of building a system that facilitates musicianship and restores hope to artists around the world who just want to play music and live their lives. AND generate sufficient profit and growth. Instead, they are all spending 110% of their energy figuring out how they will make the next 4 quarters align to the expectations their board forced them to convey to the street. Then the fuckery begins, and here we are. Somewhere along the line it became ok to “do whatever it takes” to beat the street, even if it compromises the integrity of the very mission your company was created to advance. I’ve been in similar positions, as I’m sure you have, and I stood my ground and stood up for what’s right. Even at the risk of my career. I always came out on top because I did it the right way, and that can’t ever be taken from me. I don’t understand why more people dont muster the courage to do the same, despite what’s at risk. I understand it’s hard, but people need to realize if we don’t stop this mindset we will stop innovating, stop producing, and end up an economy of middlemen and grifters (which frankly the US and others have already started becoming). This path is unsustainable, it’s one of the reasons I left industry. It’s hard to change this trajectory but we MUST.
@@ministryofguitar Hi, I tried to post a comment here but YT removed it right away. There was nothing wrong with this comment, it was only speaking truth. YT is a traitor working AGAINST Truth...
You are correct, "musician/music career" is a dying profession. AI is the last nail in the music industry coffin. Get a good job, play music as a secondary part of your life. You will have the money to make and promote your music. Otherwise you must tour 100% of the time ....... just to get low paychecks (and zero security). Sorry, I'm being honest.
Here's the thing...Spotify is a business, they want to make money. I don't blame Spotify, I blame the Record Labels for agreeing to this. All it would take is one or more of the big labels to hold out their catalog demanding a better deal. They don't do that because Spotify pays out (as a whole), last year they paid 9 billion in royalties. This is 9 billion that they weren't getting when Napster was at it's peak.
I was born in 84 - but have always been amazed at the music of the 60s-70s. What a time that must have been in the world - and what a time to be an artist
You are a thoughtful man and I appreciate that. Spotify is ridiculous. We need to go back to tangible forms of recordings, cds, tapes, records. Cd's and tapes can be home produced very inexpensively. Cut out all blood-sucking middle men. It's insane. At the precise moment the average guy can produce his own professional recordings at home, he voluntarily gives up his sovereignty of distribution to a company that only cares about profiting itself.
Spotify is probably the worst thing to happen to the music business. From the word go, initially (and to an extent still) in collaboration with the major labels, Ek and his gang paid out as little in royalties as they could to artistes and writers while making themselves rich.
They don't actually pay the artists usually, they pay one of the big three labels. Those labels hold the whole industry hostage along with Clear Channel and Ticketmaster. Like when Weird Al complains about not getting paid its his contract with Sony (through acquisition of RCA) didn't include revenue from streaming. Sony got to keep it all. Also at least two of the three labels own huge chunk of Spotify shares so they can make even more. Hopefully the whole thing explodes and we go back to local musicians like craft beer.
Remember the band Triumph? They went out and played. John Mayer put stuff out in cyber for free. And he went out and played. My channel is free (as in, no monetization), which means that my instrumental guitar performances are not interrupted by ads (yet). Googletube is also disinterested in creators (they only like getting the content that they can make money off of), while the ad interruptions are through the roof and getting worse. And I haven't even touched up their censorship practices.
Spotify is you signing up voluntarily to be stolen. I get it, musicians are desperate to make a living - but falling into the traps of a scam is awful. Spotify is a scam, riding on the backs of every creative person.
I grew up buying cassets and CDs, so it just feels natural to me to go and buy the artist's music from Sound Clour our their site. I refuse to engage the in streaming service ripoff as a fan.
Spotifys CEOs could make their own band(s) so that the entire profit goes to them and they re going to have fun too..The rest artists should change role and become their audience..I think this is a marvelous idea 💲💲💲💲💲💲
Very few musicians earn any significant amount of money from Spotify, or any streaming music service. I really don't think this is "the worst music news this year" for most people. It's just another reminder that streaming music services will never be a money maker for artists.
Utkarsh, I felt ya on this video. It had to be said. Thank you for doing that. Even if it just creates an awareness in people or spawns further discussion…it’s worth doing! Problem is, and really always has been - Spotify answers to shareholder and a board of directors - their objectives and motivations are considerably different than ours. There’s got to be a better way for musicians and music lovers, I don’t know what that is yet, but I’m talking to some pretty sharp individuals about the current music distribution channels. Something’s gotta change!
@8:00 there's a bigger issue about paying so little per play. Especially in the US where composers and songwriters aren't allowed to unionize it sets a dangerous precedent for the industry in general. Not just for consumer listening but also for media and production music
My understanding separates the idea of professional musician from musical artist ... the professional preforms a service while the latter provides entertainment ... to make a living playing music the professional depends on a demand for s skill but not necessarily a demand for him/her personally while the artist does depends on his/her personal popularity ... in either case it has always been and will continue a 'tough row to how' so to speak ... only the top selling artist have ever made any serious money from royalties and have earned the bulk their fortunes from gigging ... the songwriter's and studio's are among those hurt most by the internet/technology ... Spotify and similar services as well as record companies won't be any more concerned with this than the general 'bargain hunting' public who really love stuff they don't have to pay for ... as before the companies still expect the artists to get theirs mostly from gigging ... hell the Beatles, Michael Jackson and many other big names had a tough time with royalties coming from companies making huge and risky investments most of which fail to recoup ... yes the worst news for music this year reflects what has been a professional songwriter's worst nightmare for some time now ... thanks for your video and for letting me vent a little 🙃
There just needs to be legislation on streaming services. Audible model would ensure artists get paid fairly. Every spotify subscription should have a split between what the subscriber chooses to spend their money on and the funding distribution spotify currently bulls&@£ts, I mean operates.
The only good things about Spotify is that they play old music, classic and all types of Music from the past, but when it comes to new release, it is the distributors like routenote etc,, that dominates and continue to select music according to their own taste which they themselves does not possess any expertise, this guys are businessmen, they are not artists, that is why we don’t have good music today because they control who they will approve or not, spotify should consider, direct artist upload and prohibit the use of any distributor like routenote, etc. This method i believe will have the Artist freedom and independence..
This is why I'll keep using Tidal as long as I can. It may not be a viable solution for musicians who need to live from their art, but at least it pays them more, and nothing is shared with other stuff like podcasts or audiobook. We probably need an artist with a huge weight in the industry putting their foot down and saying they don't want their music on Spotify anymore for things to change. Unfortunately, those musicians are already millionaires and probably couldn't care less... Even small, struggling musicians are using Spotify as their own music streaming app, it boggles my mind.
Are these so-called artists minimizing my ticket sales prices when I try to go see a concert? Are they minimizing the price of the shirts they charge me for? Do they minimize the size of the private jets and mansions they fly in? These artists are money hungry monsters just like Spotify Why should I have sympathy for them when I have a $200 nosebleed ticket to see them in concert?
I have never had my songs on any distribution sites. Why should I? TH-cam doesn’t pay me for posting my original music, but they run ads on all my videos. I only post in Y.T because it’s the best way to promote myself in real life…like a video business card, when folks ask about what I do. Spotify can kiss my chocolate starfish. Thinking/believing these companies give two f’s about you is completely ridiculous. They’ve censored your opinions for years, and tried to make the general public promote their doublespeak…why would they care about paying you royalties? Making music your business has always been a silly/highly unlikely goal. Ask anyone’s grandparents, as they are old enough to recall a time where saying you wanna be a musician would get you laughed out of the house. 😂
Maybe trying to live off of original material. I've had no problem making a living doing it but it's not always with my original music. I'll play covers,sound engineering, guitar tech, whatever pays.
@ I might have some of your albums. Even the very successful musicians have no money. Good on you. I guess the way I look at it is, I would say, “Have Fun Play Guitar” and have a good job. That’s just me. We are who we are and that’s how it is.
Bro, last week one guy got his video deleted by yt and he got copyright strike for using ig logo on his thumbnail. Obviously ig sent the takedown request to yt since the video in question shared negative news about ig. You did the same mistake here speaking negatively about Sfy with their prominent logo on the thumbnail. You need to remove it, I think. Watching from India. AI Music, AI songs creator.
I see both sides of the story (> two decades in the business world, avid gigging musician on the side). I'm sorry but I invariably revert to the issue of market forces. I don't think the demand-supply equation has ever been as heavily skewed against artists at any time over the last half century as it is today. If you're in a line of business that needs unions or regulatory action to ensure a working wage, you need to think long and hard and keep your eyes open if you decide to get into that business. I'm as critical of modern music tastes and consumption trends as the next guy, but "knowing better" than the audience, being "better human beings" than the people who run the industry etc etc is extraordinarily unlikely to change anything. If the Soviet Union could not prevail against market forces, then I fear there is little hope for musicians to do so. The good news is there is so much information available now online that people can hopefully make informed choices
In 4-5 years (probably sooner), Spotify will rely significantly on AI generated content. Live performances with human artists might save some aspects of "music".
The two business models you use are terribly flawed. There are no shared parallels between an auto manufacturer and a musician. The musician MAKES the product….not a component. Spotify is more parallel to the dealership or the company that transports the vehicle.
When will people (individually) realise the major difference between «business» and corporate power? It’s like the difference between _money_ and _capital,_ also something most of us don’t grasp. Oh, that sounds like a dangerous «Marxian» analysis. Fine - but _that_ narrative is why corporations CAN do such legalised shenanigans. Because _they_ know… Right…?
My first thought when I heard this was Joe Rogan. It seems like a disconnect at the top from what is going on on the ground. It is likely that the loss leaders like Mr R can continue on as long as it is presented as being popular. Sort of like the way that you made mention of the recent Harris campaign presented their candidate as being popular and loved. It proved to be that your perception was true. Harris was not liked or loved. Rogan is not worth the contract the he was paid. The working class artists and presenters are paying for it. How does a disenfranchised class like the modern musician become represented in a was that gives them leverage in a global marked dominated by 4 hedge funds. The sad truth is that most low class humans like myself are owned. We have no power. Disenfranchised. My opinion of the TH-cam issue in Singapore is a little different than yours. Singapore has almost no middle class. It is just rich and poor. The economy is based on service and excess production. The service section of the economy is getting gutted by AI. The call centers that have made Singapore and so many other nations are being flattened. The excess production is a mixed bag at the moment. The India production sector is coming online in a serious way with its excess production ecomomy. Countries like Singapore are looking like they are getting bent out of the shape they have become used to over the past 20 years. TH-cam is likely looking at the 5 year plan and crunched numbers. It is the wealthy that are going to be able to even consider pay for Premium. TH-cam is charging the wealthy in Singapore what we will be paying in the US in as soon as 5 years. TH-cam is a $100 per month subscription service that is looking to sit in the chair that was vacated by cable TV. It will be bundled and served to the US as soon as the market indicates that it will be accepted. This will depend on how long it takes for the economy to recover. I would guess somewhere in 5 - 15 years. The middle class consumption gives YT the motivation to make the move incrementally. The increases will continue until morale improves. Even though the middle class in the US is small and shrinking fast, it is projected to remain the dominant per capita in comparison to other nations globally into the middle of the century. I don’t like the dramatic increase you experienced. But YT owns a very important market segment and it is in that stage where the capitalization phase begins. This is how I see it from the bottom looking up. Thank you for your view on the situation. Music is important to me. It seems like the ones in charge are handling entertainment as a numb commodity. Grab it pack it and ship it as fast as they can with no concern past the loading dock.
Wow, dude. Even if an artist get less than 1,000 listeners, they should be paid the minuscule amount that they earned. If they want, they can then kick them off the platform to save on server costs. But not paying people… even if it’s a small amount is b*llshit. Do you ever work for free? Of course not. Just my $.02.
I see where you are coming from. But I wouldn't work for 2 cents either. It is not proportionate to the amount of effort that goes in to making a piece of music not to mention the years it takes to get proficient. I guess for a lot of us, music is a labour of love
@ministryofguitar it just shows the vulnerability of songwriters and composers. There's 0 way to generate leverage over distributors and publishers unless one opts for a patronage model which will shrink the market drastically making it worse for consumers in the long run
Musicians over value their product. It is insane to think you record a song and whenever anyone listens to it they have to pay you a lot of money. It’s not worth that. It’s just a silly song. Musicians just got used to the idea of rockstars and largess lifestyles and dollars. That was an artificial existence. Visual artists do the same. Students at art school would always put insane prices on their crappy painting because that’s just what you do, and they think the hours it took them to do it should be paid by the hour. No. I prefer your original take on Spotify. If they’re not making a profit with a fairly mature market now, they have to reduce the price they pay for the product because people are not prepared to pay it. It’s either that or the platform collapses. And to those saying how they prefer the album and tape days, sure. But the best thing about Spotify is you discover new music, new and old. That was a big problem in the old days, accessing music. It is infinitely better now. And those albums were very expensive, way overpriced and the record companies ripping artists off anyway. Most of my music collection was taped off people who had the album, the artists got nothing off me, and you I’d suggest, everyone did it.
The crooks in the music business squeezed the golden goose too hard and killed it. No sympathy. Better music is available from your local independent band. Go back to listening to CD's. Spotify sucks anyway. MP3's sound like crap and streaming is already too tired to pay for. Next model please.
No point in complaining about Spotify. They are just the latest version of what record companies used to be. Once you are one of the few massive companies that control the distribution of music you then can do whatever you want and the creatives who supply you with the content will have no choice but to go along with it. Spotify and Apple Music took years to get to the point that they are now basically the only way most people consume music content. Same way that Sony, EMI, BMG etc controlled the industry in the past and could just pay artists a pathetic royalty rate as they had no choice. So in the future some new thing will emerge and replace "streaming" and we all will rejoice and say this new thing is better. Then as 2 or 3 major players emerge they eventually control the biz as before and the cycle continues. Talk about pessimistic!! Want to get your videos out to people? How many choices do you have? Only one really. So if TH-cam decide next week to cut your ad revenue split what are you going to do? Complain and then just suck it up. TH-camr Andy Edwards has been championing platforms like Patreon and Bandcamp. I agree with him but I hope for his sake those platforms never become so huge and ubiquitous that they eventually become the next mega-platform. Because you know what will happen then.... Only solution is for creatives to own their own platform and deal directly with their fans who will support them.
Are these so-called artists minimizing my ticket sales prices when I try to go see a concert? Are they minimizing the price of the shirts they charge me for? Do they minimize the size of the private jets and mansions they fly in? These artists are money hungry monsters just like Spotify Why should I have sympathy for them when I have a $200 nosebleed ticket to see them in concert?
The real problem is the vast majority of people think they should get music for free. Screw that! If an artist has an audience for their music they should be able to make a living from it. This is certainly not the case with Spotify.
Exactly, I say this all the time. The general population has decided that it's entitled to essentially all the music ever recorded for ten bucks a month. 🙄
I use a 64gb micro sd card that contains hundreds of hours of my music when driving. At home I use records, tapes and cd’s. No subscriptions. Never.
We just signed with Spotify to release our bands albums that we recorded 25 years ago. We dont expect to make much money, but anything is better than nothing. When we had a record contract, we didn't make any money then, either.
Two albums ago, my band was contacted by a few streaming platforms about going "digital". After reading the terms of service, we decided not to negotiate or deal with any of them. My advice to anyone considering their services to get a lawyer to explain the terms. Make sure you understand any contract you read.
Venues are even worse.
Insane ticket price gouging and wanting a cut of merch sales.
No one is forced to use Spotify.
Every one is beholden to the whims of the venue.
Your first mistake was to believe there was a "soul" to the music industry. Never has been.
Another great video thanks. And yet another example of profit over people fueling our greedy consumerist lifestyles. I respect the system of capitalism and understand it intimately, and my disdain for excess profits comes directly from that understanding. Someone, somewhere inside of Spotify should have said “this is wrong. We are growing profits to meet shareholders expectations by deceiving the people who create the content that makes us money in the first place”
There is responsible capitalism and there is greed. We have long lost the ways of responsible capitalism and I can’t think of a single publicly listed company who does it the right way. Greed has choked out integrity in the global economy, it’s all but lost.
This sums up a lot of my sentiment. The only thing I’ll add is that you have a lot of good people working in most companies but ultimately all people are guided by incentives and survival. It’s the system that needs some reform
@ 100% agree with you. Ironic we followed a similar path (earn early, retire young, play music & have fun with your wife/best friend). Perhaps our similar experiences shaped our worldview to be a bit more empathetic and understanding of just how much abundance we have, and how much of it is kept away from the people who need it most.
Spotify’s CEO & exec team should have a stated mission of enriching creators, of building a system that facilitates musicianship and restores hope to artists around the world who just want to play music and live their lives. AND generate sufficient profit and growth. Instead, they are all spending 110% of their energy figuring out how they will make the next 4 quarters align to the expectations their board forced them to convey to the street. Then the fuckery begins, and here we are. Somewhere along the line it became ok to “do whatever it takes” to beat the street, even if it compromises the integrity of the very mission your company was created to advance.
I’ve been in similar positions, as I’m sure you have, and I stood my ground and stood up for what’s right. Even at the risk of my career. I always came out on top because I did it the right way, and that can’t ever be taken from me.
I don’t understand why more people dont muster the courage to do the same, despite what’s at risk. I understand it’s hard, but people need to realize if we don’t stop this mindset we will stop innovating, stop producing, and end up an economy of middlemen and grifters (which frankly the US and others have already started becoming).
This path is unsustainable, it’s one of the reasons I left industry. It’s hard to change this trajectory but we MUST.
The hope is it self corrects but let's see. History is full of failed idealistic revolutions
@@ministryofguitar Hi, I tried to post a comment here but YT removed it right away. There was nothing wrong with this comment, it was only speaking truth. YT is a traitor working AGAINST Truth...
You are correct, "musician/music career" is a dying profession. AI is the last nail in the music industry coffin.
Get a good job, play music as a secondary part of your life. You will have the money to make and promote your music. Otherwise you must tour 100% of the time ....... just to get low paychecks (and zero security).
Sorry, I'm being honest.
I think you are right
Here's the thing...Spotify is a business, they want to make money. I don't blame Spotify, I blame the Record Labels for agreeing to this. All it would take is one or more of the big labels to hold out their catalog demanding a better deal. They don't do that because Spotify pays out (as a whole), last year they paid 9 billion in royalties. This is 9 billion that they weren't getting when Napster was at it's peak.
Music became everything that is not music :( I am still stuck with my 1940-80s playlist
I was born in 84 - but have always been amazed at the music of the 60s-70s. What a time that must have been in the world - and what a time to be an artist
You are a thoughtful man and I appreciate that. Spotify is ridiculous. We need to go back to tangible forms of recordings, cds, tapes, records. Cd's and tapes can be home produced very inexpensively. Cut out all blood-sucking middle men. It's insane. At the precise moment the average guy can produce his own professional recordings at home, he voluntarily gives up his sovereignty of distribution to a company that only cares about profiting itself.
Spotify is probably the worst thing to happen to the music business. From the word go, initially (and to an extent still) in collaboration with the major labels, Ek and his gang paid out as little in royalties as they could to artistes and writers while making themselves rich.
They don't actually pay the artists usually, they pay one of the big three labels. Those labels hold the whole industry hostage along with Clear Channel and Ticketmaster. Like when Weird Al complains about not getting paid its his contract with Sony (through acquisition of RCA) didn't include revenue from streaming. Sony got to keep it all. Also at least two of the three labels own huge chunk of Spotify shares so they can make even more. Hopefully the whole thing explodes and we go back to local musicians like craft beer.
Remember the band Triumph? They went out and played.
John Mayer put stuff out in cyber for free. And he went out and played.
My channel is free (as in, no monetization), which means that my instrumental guitar performances are not interrupted by ads (yet).
Googletube is also disinterested in creators (they only like getting the content that they can make money off of), while the ad interruptions are through the roof and getting worse. And I haven't even touched up their censorship practices.
I’m not sure how you ever had a good opinion of Spotify, seriously…their heart is in the right place? Naive my friend!
I only listen to music that I create myself.
Spotify is you signing up voluntarily to be stolen.
I get it, musicians are desperate to make a living - but falling into the traps of a scam is awful. Spotify is a scam, riding on the backs of every creative person.
I grew up buying cassets and CDs, so it just feels natural to me to go and buy the artist's music from Sound Clour our their site. I refuse to engage the in streaming service ripoff as a fan.
Spotifys CEOs could make their own band(s) so that the entire profit goes to them and they re going to have fun too..The rest artists should change role and become their audience..I think this is a marvelous idea 💲💲💲💲💲💲
I ditched Spotify a few months ago.
Very few musicians earn any significant amount of money from Spotify, or any streaming music service. I really don't think this is "the worst music news this year" for most people. It's just another reminder that streaming music services will never be a money maker for artists.
Utkarsh, I felt ya on this video. It had to be said.
Thank you for doing that. Even if it just creates an awareness in people or spawns further discussion…it’s worth doing!
Problem is, and really always has been - Spotify answers to shareholder and a board of directors - their objectives and motivations are considerably different than ours. There’s got to be a better way for musicians and music lovers, I don’t know what that is yet, but I’m talking to some pretty sharp individuals about the current music distribution channels. Something’s gotta change!
@8:00 there's a bigger issue about paying so little per play. Especially in the US where composers and songwriters aren't allowed to unionize it sets a dangerous precedent for the industry in general. Not just for consumer listening but also for media and production music
Yes you are right. It’s on my list to examine the economics of that
@ministryofguitar if you need I can put you in contact with a couple of old professors of mine if you need
Its a shame that its hard to make a living as working musician unless you are a mega star
Not really. It’s just the value of the service. Musicians consistently overvalue their product, by a long way.
Damn, now I'm not sure what to do about Spotify! We always thought it'd be a good discovery platform
Spotify doesn’t make money but Daniel elk a billionaire 😂 crooks the lot of them
I could listen to this guys accent all day
On point 👍
Thanks
Strangely enough, I just think it has a crap logo.Music itself is there to be discovered for yourself.Just enjoy playing and creating music
My understanding separates the idea of professional musician from musical artist ... the professional preforms a service while the latter provides entertainment ... to make a living playing music the professional depends on a demand for s skill but not necessarily a demand for him/her personally while the artist does depends on his/her personal popularity ... in either case it has always been and will continue a 'tough row to how' so to speak ... only the top selling artist have ever made any serious money from royalties and have earned the bulk their fortunes from gigging ... the songwriter's and studio's are among those hurt most by the internet/technology ... Spotify and similar services as well as record companies won't be any more concerned with this than the general 'bargain hunting' public who really love stuff they don't have to pay for ... as before the companies still expect the artists to get theirs mostly from gigging ... hell the Beatles, Michael Jackson and many other big names had a tough time with royalties coming from companies making huge and risky investments most of which fail to recoup ... yes the worst news for music this year reflects what has been a professional songwriter's worst nightmare for some time now ... thanks for your video and for letting me vent a little 🙃
There just needs to be legislation on streaming services.
Audible model would ensure artists get paid fairly. Every spotify subscription should have a split between what the subscriber chooses to spend their money on and the funding distribution spotify currently bulls&@£ts, I mean operates.
The only good things about Spotify is that they play old music, classic and all types of Music from the past, but when it comes to new release, it is the distributors like routenote etc,, that dominates and continue to select music according to their own taste which they themselves does not possess any expertise, this guys are businessmen, they are not artists, that is why we don’t have good music today because they control who they will approve or not, spotify should consider, direct artist upload and prohibit the use of any distributor like routenote, etc. This method i believe will have the Artist freedom and independence..
It's going to take a large artist or group of large artists to fix this situation.
This is why I'll keep using Tidal as long as I can. It may not be a viable solution for musicians who need to live from their art, but at least it pays them more, and nothing is shared with other stuff like podcasts or audiobook. We probably need an artist with a huge weight in the industry putting their foot down and saying they don't want their music on Spotify anymore for things to change. Unfortunately, those musicians are already millionaires and probably couldn't care less... Even small, struggling musicians are using Spotify as their own music streaming app, it boggles my mind.
Are these so-called artists minimizing my ticket sales prices when I try to go see a concert? Are they minimizing the price of the shirts they charge me for? Do they minimize the size of the private jets and mansions they fly in? These artists are money hungry monsters just like Spotify Why should I have sympathy for them when I have a $200 nosebleed ticket to see them in concert?
I still buy MP3s. That makes me feel old. But it feels good.
Wasn’t this guy on ‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ 20 years ago?
I have never had my songs on any distribution sites.
Why should I?
TH-cam doesn’t pay me for posting my original music, but they run ads on all my videos.
I only post in Y.T because it’s the best way to promote myself in real life…like a video business card, when folks ask about what I do.
Spotify can kiss my chocolate starfish.
Thinking/believing these companies give two f’s about you is completely ridiculous.
They’ve censored your opinions for years, and tried to make the general public promote their doublespeak…why would they care about paying you royalties?
Making music your business has always been a silly/highly unlikely goal.
Ask anyone’s grandparents, as they are old enough to recall a time where saying you wanna be a musician would get you laughed out of the house. 😂
i've never used spotify and this makes me happy that i made that decision.
I boycotted it from day one because, monopoly capital, workers trapped in, you said it, it was always that
Music was never a good idea for making a living.
Sad but true
Maybe trying to live off of original material.
I've had no problem making a living doing it but it's not always with my original music.
I'll play covers,sound engineering, guitar tech, whatever pays.
Wrong. I've made a decent living. The trick is to understand any and all contracts you sign. It's usually a good idea to walk away.
@
I might have some of your albums. Even the very successful musicians have no money.
Good on you. I guess the way I look at it is, I would say, “Have Fun Play Guitar” and have a good job. That’s just me. We are who we are and that’s how it is.
Fascinating news thanks for sharing
Bro, last week one guy got his video deleted by yt and he got copyright strike for using ig logo on his thumbnail. Obviously ig sent the takedown request to yt since the video in question shared negative news about ig. You did the same mistake here speaking negatively about Sfy with their prominent logo on the thumbnail. You need to remove it, I think. Watching from India. AI Music, AI songs creator.
I’ll keep an eye out. Thanks for sharing
Nowadays, you can get cancelled everywhere.
I see both sides of the story (> two decades in the business world, avid gigging musician on the side). I'm sorry but I invariably revert to the issue of market forces. I don't think the demand-supply equation has ever been as heavily skewed against artists at any time over the last half century as it is today. If you're in a line of business that needs unions or regulatory action to ensure a working wage, you need to think long and hard and keep your eyes open if you decide to get into that business. I'm as critical of modern music tastes and consumption trends as the next guy, but "knowing better" than the audience, being "better human beings" than the people who run the industry etc etc is extraordinarily unlikely to change anything. If the Soviet Union could not prevail against market forces, then I fear there is little hope for musicians to do so. The good news is there is so much information available now online that people can hopefully make informed choices
In 4-5 years (probably sooner), Spotify will rely significantly on AI generated content. Live performances with human artists might save some aspects of "music".
The two business models you use are terribly flawed. There are no shared parallels between an auto manufacturer and a musician. The musician MAKES the product….not a component. Spotify is more parallel to the dealership or the company that transports the vehicle.
When will people (individually) realise the major difference between «business» and corporate power?
It’s like the difference between _money_ and _capital,_ also something most of us don’t grasp.
Oh, that sounds like a dangerous «Marxian» analysis. Fine - but _that_ narrative is why corporations CAN do such legalised shenanigans.
Because _they_ know… Right…?
I don't care since I don't use it 😅
My first thought when I heard this was Joe Rogan. It seems like a disconnect at the top from what is going on on the ground. It is likely that the loss leaders like Mr R can continue on as long as it is presented as being popular. Sort of like the way that you made mention of the recent Harris campaign presented their candidate as being popular and loved. It proved to be that your perception was true. Harris was not liked or loved. Rogan is not worth the contract the he was paid. The working class artists and presenters are paying for it. How does a disenfranchised class like the modern musician become represented in a was that gives them leverage in a global marked dominated by 4 hedge funds. The sad truth is that most low class humans like myself are owned. We have no power. Disenfranchised.
My opinion of the TH-cam issue in Singapore is a little different than yours. Singapore has almost no middle class. It is just rich and poor. The economy is based on service and excess production. The service section of the economy is getting gutted by AI. The call centers that have made Singapore and so many other nations are being flattened. The excess production is a mixed bag at the moment. The India production sector is coming online in a serious way with its excess production ecomomy. Countries like Singapore are looking like they are getting bent out of the shape they have become used to over the past 20 years. TH-cam is likely looking at the 5 year plan and crunched numbers. It is the wealthy that are going to be able to even consider pay for Premium. TH-cam is charging the wealthy in Singapore what we will be paying in the US in as soon as 5 years. TH-cam is a $100 per month subscription service that is looking to sit in the chair that was vacated by cable TV. It will be bundled and served to the US as soon as the market indicates that it will be accepted. This will depend on how long it takes for the economy to recover. I would guess somewhere in 5 - 15 years. The middle class consumption gives YT the motivation to make the move incrementally. The increases will continue until morale improves. Even though the middle class in the US is small and shrinking fast, it is projected to remain the dominant per capita in comparison to other nations globally into the middle of the century. I don’t like the dramatic increase you experienced. But YT owns a very important market segment and it is in that stage where the capitalization phase begins. This is how I see it from the bottom looking up.
Thank you for your view on the situation. Music is important to me. It seems like the ones in charge are handling entertainment as a numb commodity. Grab it pack it and ship it as fast as they can with no concern past the loading dock.
Never have been a fan of Spotify.
Thanks for the valuable input.
What a great guitar collection you have 😂
Wow, dude. Even if an artist get less than 1,000 listeners, they should be paid the minuscule amount that they earned. If they want, they can then kick them off the platform to save on server costs. But not paying people… even if it’s a small amount is b*llshit. Do you ever work for free? Of course not. Just my $.02.
I see where you are coming from. But I wouldn't work for 2 cents either. It is not proportionate to the amount of effort that goes in to making a piece of music not to mention the years it takes to get proficient. I guess for a lot of us, music is a labour of love
@ministryofguitar it just shows the vulnerability of songwriters and composers. There's 0 way to generate leverage over distributors and publishers unless one opts for a patronage model which will shrink the market drastically making it worse for consumers in the long run
Free. At my YT. Here. No ads. Just Music.
The Ministry of Guitar reminds me of The Ministry of Silly Walks.
Musicians over value their product. It is insane to think you record a song and whenever anyone listens to it they have to pay you a lot of money. It’s not worth that. It’s just a silly song. Musicians just got used to the idea of rockstars and largess lifestyles and dollars. That was an artificial existence. Visual artists do the same. Students at art school would always put insane prices on their crappy painting because that’s just what you do, and they think the hours it took them to do it should be paid by the hour. No. I prefer your original take on Spotify. If they’re not making a profit with a fairly mature market now, they have to reduce the price they pay for the product because people are not prepared to pay it. It’s either that or the platform collapses.
And to those saying how they prefer the album and tape days, sure. But the best thing about Spotify is you discover new music, new and old. That was a big problem in the old days, accessing music. It is infinitely better now. And those albums were very expensive, way overpriced and the record companies ripping artists off anyway. Most of my music collection was taped off people who had the album, the artists got nothing off me, and you I’d suggest, everyone did it.
Parasites
The crooks in the music business squeezed the golden goose too hard and killed it. No sympathy. Better music is available from your local independent band. Go back to listening to CD's. Spotify sucks anyway. MP3's sound like crap and streaming is already too tired to pay for. Next model please.
No point in complaining about Spotify. They are just the latest version of what record companies used to be. Once you are one of the few massive companies that control the distribution of music you then can do whatever you want and the creatives who supply you with the content will have no choice but to go along with it.
Spotify and Apple Music took years to get to the point that they are now basically the only way most people consume music content. Same way that Sony, EMI, BMG etc controlled the industry in the past and could just pay artists a pathetic royalty rate as they had no choice.
So in the future some new thing will emerge and replace "streaming" and we all will rejoice and say this new thing is better. Then as 2 or 3 major players emerge they eventually control the biz as before and the cycle continues. Talk about pessimistic!!
Want to get your videos out to people? How many choices do you have? Only one really. So if TH-cam decide next week to cut your ad revenue split what are you going to do? Complain and then just suck it up.
TH-camr Andy Edwards has been championing platforms like Patreon and Bandcamp. I agree with him but I hope for his sake those platforms never become so huge and ubiquitous that they eventually become the next mega-platform. Because you know what will happen then....
Only solution is for creatives to own their own platform and deal directly with their fans who will support them.
Are these so-called artists minimizing my ticket sales prices when I try to go see a concert? Are they minimizing the price of the shirts they charge me for? Do they minimize the size of the private jets and mansions they fly in? These artists are money hungry monsters just like Spotify Why should I have sympathy for them when I have a $200 nosebleed ticket to see them in concert?