After announcing increased prices, Spotify to Pay Songwriters About $150 Million Less Next Year ( www.billboard.com )

When Bloomberg reported that Spotify would be upping the cost of its premium subscription from $9.99 to $10.99, and including 15 hours of audiobooks per month in the U.S., the change sounded like a win for songwriters and publishers. Higher subscription prices typically equate to a bump in U.S. mechanical royalties — but not this time.

By adding audiobooks into Spotify’s premium tier, the streaming service now claims it qualifies to pay a discounted “bundle” rate to songwriters for premium streams, given Spotify now has to pay licensing for both books and music from the same price tag — which will only be a dollar higher than when music was the only premium offering. Additionally, Spotify will reclassify its duo and family subscription plans as bundles as well.

jae , (edited )
@jae@reddthat.com avatar

I feel so bad for artists. They deserve to get paid for their hard work. Unfortunately, it’s been so hard for me to convince friends to move away from these predatory streaming platforms. A lot of people don’t want to lose having an unlimited catalogue at their fingertips.

Maybe I’m going to sound like a boomer here, but I don’t get why people need an unlimited catalogue at all. What’s wrong with paying artists directly to get their vinyls and CDs (or digital album)? What happened to curating your music library? What happened to the days where you’d buy CDs and listen to them over and over again, front to back? What happened to the days where playlists were manually curated for yourself, or even better, for your friends? Some of my fondest memories are music related, of my best friends painstakingly selecting a playlist of songs for me and burning them onto a CD for me to enjoy. What happened to the days where we didn’t need a constant stream of music pushed to us by an impersonal AI? What happened to developing your own unique and interesting personal taste?

I get that these streaming platforms are convenient, but it feels to me that we’re losing the ability to actively listen to music, to truly appreciate it, to understand the labor of love that it was for the artists, all for the sake of convenience. I don’t want music to be convenient, music is a fucking gift. I don’t want to be pushed AI generated recs, or AI generated music.

I’m rambling, lost my train of thought, and probably sound like a Luddite, but I have such strong feelings related to music and just hate these streaming platforms so much. I refuse to use them.

tldr please please please support your favorite artists by buying from them directly

Evotech ,

The music world that er have today cannot be compared.

If we just had CDs 99.99999% of artists would just never be put in a store. There would just not be shelf space.

Say what your will about streaming but the internet has allowed a lot more people to make music and to get heard.

jae ,
@jae@reddthat.com avatar

I realize I kept saying CDs, but I also include buying digital version in what I meant, edited my original post to say that. My main gripe is that we do have these services in which musicians can put their work out there and get paid fairly for it, but people don’t use them. Buying digital album is cheaper than monthly streaming price for Spotify too. These services that people value for convenience are hurting artists. We even have musicians commenting so here.

Emerald ,

There is also so much great music being put out for free officially

Aux ,

What happened to curating your music library?

Nothing. Because that was never really a thing. What you're describing was/is just a hobby. And, like most hobbies, it's small and niche relative to the industry as a whole. Most people were listening to music for free through radio since forever. Then TV was added into the mix. Paying for music, unless it's a concert, is just not really a concept humanity is familiar with.

jae ,
@jae@reddthat.com avatar

I agree that many people listened to music for free via radio but I’m skeptical that it was just a hobby? What about the Zune/iPod days? People went through more efforts to curate a library, no? Whether it was with music downloaded illegally, or actually paid for via iTunes…

Aux ,

It was rarely curated. You just listen to the radio, hear some cool tunes, buy the albums of the artists, the end.

jae ,
@jae@reddthat.com avatar

That's what I meant by curated! Taking the effort to buy some cool songs/albums you liked. Is there a connotation to "curation" that I don't know about?

shikitohno ,

I think curation implies more depth and selectivity to the collection and perhaps a certain amount of active effort to obtain and maintain it. You're talking about hearing a song you like on the radio and clicking "buy," where the sort of person who would talk about their curated library would spend their weekends digging through crates looking for the final LP released on some random record label in 1985 they need to complete their collection of what is, to them, the pinnacle of early house music as released in Yugoslavia prior to the fall of the USSR. Even if it's not as hyper-specific as that example, I would expect them to at least have things meticulously tagged and organized.

jae ,
@jae@reddthat.com avatar

That's fair. But then what is the word for what I am talking of? Just simply "collecting"? But could that also have a connotation of a person who's into collecting music as a hobby, like what you're saying for "curated"?

shikitohno ,

I wouldn't really say it's anything beyond normal consumption, just like I wouldn't say someone who buys a hat or jersey once every few years when they see a sporting event live has a sports memorabilia collection. Sure, technically, any quantity of something united can count as a collection, but I think plenty of purchasing just falls within the normal bounds of average consumption and doesn't rise to the level of meriting a special term for it.

jjjalljs ,

I think people who care about music make some false assumptions about people that kind of don't. It's like the xkcd about quartz: https://xkcd.com/2501/

CrowAirbrush ,

I already canceled with the last price increase, because it went from €9,99 to €12,99 for me they don't need to convince me that i made the right decision.

sfunk1x ,

Metallica, Dr Dre, et al were not wrong in suing Napster. We're seeing the fruits of the evolution of that format. I guess at least people aren't downloading "Get Back ft Stevie Wonder - Oasis.wma" anymore, and somebody is making money off of it. Just (mostly) not the artists that make the music.

Low cost, distributed digital distribution is absolutely a thing. Phones have enormous storage anymore, so much so most people could have their entire music collections available on their phones or tablets - not everyone - but most people.

A distributed streaming platform would really be the way to do this and make it cost effective for everybody. An app that could stream from a list of sources (remember playlists? M3U files that could play from multiple Internet locations - yeah, that already exists and has since before 2000) would enable people to stream the music they haven't found yet or are searching for.

Seems like an interesting open source software project, to be honest. Funkwhale is probably a good basis for extension, and could be run by the artists (or provided to then via a simple click to setup platform) for low overhead.

EmperorHenry ,
@EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

"but if we pirate things the singers won't get anything!"

yeah, fuck the music companies and fuck the movie companies. The moral thing to do is to pirate everything you want to watch, read and listen to.

the actors, writers and singers and everyone working behind the scenes are already getting next to nothing for their hard work compared to what the executives at all those corporations are getting for just sitting on their asses.

....sorry I blacked out, what were we talking about?

You should never pirate anything! that would be bad!

itsmect ,
@itsmect@monero.town avatar

God I wish more artists would support direct donations. Yoink the file from wherever and in exchange sneak 10 bucks into the artists pockets.

Grandwolf319 ,

Pirate and go to live shows.

Companies love selling you digital stuff cause they are essentially giving you nothing (as in it doesn’t cost them anything).

bob_lemon ,

I agree that live shows (and buying merch) is the best way to support artists.

But the CDNs required to run a music streaming service are anything but cheap.

Grandwolf319 ,

But the CDNs required to run a music streaming service are anything but cheap.

Yeah, I still think music streaming makes little sense cause usually people listen to songs over and over. Movie streaming makes more sense cause most people watch one title and not watch it again for years or ever.

fuck_u_spez_in_particular ,

Or buy (also) via something like bandcamp, when the artist is on it. They cut only 10% IIRC

Emerald ,

On Bandcamp Friday they take no cut at all. All money goes to artist after payment processor fees. https://isitbandcampfriday.com

supersquirrel ,

Bandcamp is in the rapid process of enshittification, so this is a temporary solution at best at this point :(

Emerald ,

Not really rapid. They were acquired, but I haven't noticed anything happen yet at all in my entire time using Bandcamp that would be "enshittification"

supersquirrel ,

They already fired half the employees who work for Bandcamp, Bandcamp is dead as an entity, just because is still flying through the air based on its own momentum yet and hasn’t coming crashing back to earth doesn’t mean that isn’t what is about to happen.

Bandcamp has always been amazing because it was run not like a massive corporation and those days are over.

ChickenLadyLovesLife ,

go to live shows

Live shows not put on by Ticketmaster! Shit ...

unreasonabro , (edited )

Spotify could charge ten times their current price - indeed, should have been, for nearly the entire catalogue of western music? even at $100/mo it would have been a steal - and even so, they wouldn't be paying artists significantly more, or even at a reasonable rate.

The model is the problem. The middleman is the problem. The service itself is the problem. It can never work in a way that pays artists fairly as long as it requires human oversight, administration and intervention, let alone all the wasteful shit like advertising and legal overhead/payola for politicians.

Get an AI to do it right, though... puffpuff, pass

fukurthumz420 ,

thank you. the fact that we aren't rioting to have more automated services that pass the cost benefit on to the people is something i'll never understand. we have the tools to build utopia but they can;t figure out how to make enough money from it.

unreasonabro ,

The problem is, they're all thinking that utopia will have money. Silly noobs

fukurthumz420 ,

exactly

Lucidlethargy ,
@Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works avatar

Stop using this shitty service. There are much better options. I like Tidal, but even Apple music seems decent compared to Spotify.

The audio quality alone should be telling people just how bad spotify is.

Evrala ,

If I still used Apple products I'd still be using Apple Music. Good sound with the ability to upload my own music library to mesh with it seamlessly to cover the gaps of what wasn't available? It was my ideal music streaming service.

Now I'm on Deezer but every streaming service has gaps in their catalog for what I listen to.

Slowly working on getting my own music library together to get rid of streaming services entirely. Plan on using Plex for now, but eventually I'll just move to a phone that has an SD card slot.

Mix of purchases and stuff downloaded and saved from Deezer.

PalmTreeIsBestTree ,

I am okay with YouTube premium with the music app. I am no audiophile so I can have all the gaps filled with music videos and just play the audio.

ehxor ,

Does Tidal pay artists better?

Viper_NZ ,

Two to three times what Spotify pay artists per stream.

ehxor ,

Thanks for including the link!

BigPotato ,

I dunno. Spotify stopped billing me for the family plan I was paying for some years ago and at this point I've got five accounts mooching off of them and I'm using powershell to download gigabytes worth of music off of them...

Like, Spotify is evil but at this point I'm a negative number for them every month. I'm gonna keep on going until they decide to shut off the hose.

Oh, but I do go to concerts and buy records.

BonesOfTheMoon ,

The trouble I've found with Apple music for me is that a lot of the classical stuff that I listen to on YouTube Music (RIP forever GPM you were the best) isn't on Apple, but a lot of other content that isn't anywhere else is there. So you're having to choose between one or the other and their stuff kind of sucks.

scaryjelly ,

Because of financial problems i switched from streaming back to my old ipod. Moding this old player was one of the best decisions in my career as music listner.
The best thing about it is that my phone can run low on battery but i am still able to listen to chumbawamba.

Decentrelize your hardware!

SuperSpruce ,

I'm just gonna keep exploiting the 3 month free trial with all my accounts. I still have my own local library as well.

fossilesque ,
@fossilesque@mander.xyz avatar

Google Spotiflyer and Spotube at your convenience.

Churbleyimyam ,

And 99.99999 percent of musicians lament being humiliated and poor.

Stop releasing your music on Spotify. They depend on you for their reputation as having all the music and will give you nothing in return except ever-broadening inequality and ever-narrowing artistic culture. People have mocked boomers for claiming that music is dying but that's exactly what is happening.

viking ,
@viking@infosec.pub avatar

Yeah I'm done with spotify.

Back when it was a fiver, I could get the appeal and had a subscription myself.

At 11 bucks it comes at the price of a CD per month, every month. I didn't buy that much music annually, ever. So right now we are entering a territory where streaming is exceeding the price of my regular music consumption patterns. I'll go back to buying physical media and torrenting whatever old stuff is no longer available and can't be found on ebay.

Fuck 'em with a cactus.

theangryseal ,

CDs are cheap as fuck now.

I’d cancel my Spotify but my teenager would drop dead.

wrekone ,

That's what's stopping me too. I've tried to convince them that Youtube Music (I'm a holdover from the Play Music days, RIP) is good enough but they won't have it. I miss Songza.

GarytheSnail ,
@GarytheSnail@programming.dev avatar

I typically like to just buy my music but the appeal of spotify, to me, is the algorithm and being able to play random singles and one offs from artists I would probably not ever hear a single thing from otherwise.

jjjalljs ,

I like bandcamp a lot more than spotify for finding new music. A lot of it feels less soulless because it is (presumably) written by real people.

https://daily.bandcamp.com/essential-releases/essential-releases-may-10-2024 - timely
https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/japanese-acid-folk-list - genre deep dive

Plus on a given album page, like https://castleratband.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-realm-2 , it has links to "Other people liked this", and the genre tags. It's pretty good for discoverability, though maybe not as smooth as the soulless algorithms of spotify.

Bandcamp sold to epic and then got sold to some other vultures so they might turn to shit, but until that happens it's a good, profitable, seemingly equitable platform. Artists got a big cut, you got drm-free music. The idea seems solid, if you can avoid the "infinite growth at all costs" and "i'm gonna sell out, fuck you" traps.

TheLowestStone ,
@TheLowestStone@lemmy.world avatar

I use Spotify regularly on my PC without a subscription and an ad blocker running. Does that qualify as fucking them with a cactus?

viking ,
@viking@infosec.pub avatar

I do the same with youtube and adblock, so I guess that qualifies.

Grandwolf319 ,

Yeah, people forget that the appeal of Spotify was being able to make a free account and listen to any music. It was okay that it was worse cause it was easy.

Idk how paying for it became common… maybe cause those free users got too comfortable with it.

CrayonRosary ,

I don't subscribe, bit I wouldn't think about it compared to the price of physical media. I would compare it to satellite radio. Or cable radio. (Does Spectrum still do that?)

All three are paid, ad-free radio, sorta, though streaming services are on-demand.

AshMan85 ,

Fuck stopify. If u have any respect/appreciation for music and who created it you should not be using spotify.

filcuk ,

I've tried all the popular alternatives, and not one was better.
Theoretically, buying the songs without DRM felt best, but having enjoyed nearly 6,5K different artists on Spotify so far, that won't really work.
Unfortunately, as an average consumer, that means I'm sticking with Spotify for now.

NikkiDimes ,

I hope their platform soon becomes over inundated with AI slop from Udio and Suno to the point it is unusable and collapses.

Juice ,

Technology is so amazing. It is finally possible to pay artists in exposure

unreasonabro ,

Not that anyone does that either

set_secret ,

I fucked off Spotify after the Jo Rogan debacle.

Viper_NZ ,

I’ve been with Tidal since. I miss the Spotify recommendation algorithm but that’s it.

lingh0e ,

I've been a paying member for almost a decade. I've been training it that entire time with what I do and don't like. I've also been using their suggested playlists for years and further refining what they recommend. So their algorithm is a huge part of it for me. I am constantly finding songs and artists I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise.

That said, I've been holding my nose while I renewed the service for the past couple of years. I'm willing to part ways for Tidal if it's a comparable service with better benefits to the artists.

set_secret ,

Same

Jarix ,

i paid for the best tier Tidal for a year and it was a worse experience than spotify. Their catalogue is incomplete compared to spotify

CoffeeJunkie ,

Joe Rogan debacle?

set_secret ,

There's plenty of info if you google your comment.

https://www.salon.com/2022/02/07/spotify-joe-rogan-artists-subscribers/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/arts/joe-rogan-spotify.html

Etc etc

oxlikesmath ,

Just download music from 3rd party sites. Not that hard, don't understand why you are complaining so much.

Senseless ,

So.. is there an alternative to Spotify for music streaming inside the EU that also has a large DB of metal? Ideally a service that gives a bigger share to the artists.

cyrus ,
@cyrus@sopuli.xyz avatar

"Inside the EU" in the sense of "its headquartered in the EU" or in the sense of "available in the EU"?

either way, I've heard lots of people here vouch for Tidal.

Senseless ,

It's available in the EU.
Found a promising service the other day but it wasn't available here.

fushuan , (edited )

Most of them, honestly. Idk where you looked but Tidal, Amazon music, apple music, dezeer or however it's pronounced, all were available in Spain. I stocked with Tidal because of the Linux client but apparently theybalso pay artists the most so yay.

As an edit, you mentioned metal, I listen to lots of mainstream metal bands (powerwolf, system of a dawn, dragonforce, sonar arctica, blind guardian...), some other maybe not so well known ones (tyr, alestorm, korpiklaani), and some local ones that are more rock than metal (vendetta, su ta gar, kaotiko, la polla records).

Senseless ,

Nice, thanks for the answer. They also got a 60 day premium test period for 2 euro, so I'll test it out.

baseless_discourse , (edited )

bandcamp is nice. They give much more to artist, and allow you to download flac. So that you can enjoy your music without worrying about your listening habits feeding the machine.

Our share is 15% on digital items, and 10% on physical goods. Payment processor fees are separate and vary depending on the size of the transaction, but for an average size purchase, amount to an additional 4-7%. The remainder, usually 80-85%, goes directly to the artist or their label, and we pay out daily.

https://bandcamp.com/fair_trade_music_policy

noobnarski ,

I dont know if they have all the metal you want, but maybe Youtube Music. One youtuber has stated that he gets about twice as much per view from YT Music than he does from Spotify.

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