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.

scripthook ,
@scripthook@lemmy.world avatar

Doesn’t make me feel guilty using Soulseek. Artists get next to nothing but I’m refusing to give any money to Spotify. If there was a better way to buy and own music digitally from popular artists I would

lunachocken ,

Bandcamp

scripthook ,
@scripthook@lemmy.world avatar

I mean high end artists not indie

FluminaInMaria ,

What does high end mean?

Spider89 ,

I assume professinol music that's good. Not amuture sounding music.

sgtgig ,

Unironically iTunes

unreasonabro ,

high end artists don't need your money, they're funded already and corporate productions in the first place. So i guess you're in the clear! ;)

RizzRustbolt ,

Don't use spotifly.

Give your money to SomaFM instead.

Churbleyimyam ,

And Radio Free Fedi.

Cris_Color ,
@Cris_Color@lemmy.world avatar

What is radio free fedi?

Churbleyimyam ,

Radio Free Fedi or @RFF is a community internet radio station which plays music from artists on the fediverse. From their own website at https://radiofreefedi.net/ :

radio free fedi is consent, agency and artist celebrating community radio from the fediverse. We actively and openly present contributing artists' information with the hopes that you will drop-in, discover, and then LEAVE? That's right, RFF has no interest to be an end-point for hyper focused consumption. We also do not have the resource to provide infinite custom streams and we love the community to not do soulless algorithms. We want to foster organic discovery and discourse. We want to generate support for independent artists on the platforms and methods of their choice, no judgement. Support independent and fedi artists!

I've discovered loads of awesome and unique music on it :)

Cris_Color ,
@Cris_Color@lemmy.world avatar

Dude that sounds rad! Thanks for mentioning them and explaining what they are, I'll have to check that out!

Churbleyimyam ,

It fuckin is rad! I love it so much! I mostly listen to the Comfy channel but I've found some wicked stuff on the main channel too. There's usually a link so you can find them on the fedi or buy a track too.
Maybe it's because of the fediverse/freedom/generosity ethic and I'm in a biased bubble but everything on there is just so genuinely good, even if it's not normally my taste. I've had a bunch of really sweet evenings listening to it and my gf always asks what the track is when I put it on. I kinda want to volunteer for the channel tbh. Check it out and feel free to DM me with what you think! I'm spending more time on Lemmy than Mastodon these days, so I'm not seeing people mention them via hashtags as much. RFF and Pixelfed are basically the best thing about the internet right now imo :)

Snapz ,

"Let's throw away all of our physical media! All digital streaming music, movies and books will be so much better! Everything we want, always available, anywhere!!!"

Somewhat true if you're a seasoned sailor of the high seas, not so much if not...

Kbobabob ,

You don't need to be a "seasoned sailor". It's incredibly easy IMO to get what you want if you're willing to put forth a tiny amount of effort.

militant_spider ,

The seasoning helps to know where it’s safe to put into port though.

madcaesar ,

I'm fighting this fight with phone and sd cards. It's part of the reason they are killing sd card slots to get people to put everything in the cloud.

Sadly most people are morons and are doing exactly that.

Jax ,

Most people do not understand that there are many ways to burn a book.

Grandwolf319 ,

We are entering the golden age of self hosting and I’m gonna go all in!!!

And for those wondering what about artists, two words: live shows

Bluefalcon ,

Capitalism!!! USA!! USA!! USA!! 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
You poor fucks don't deserve music.

timewarp ,
@timewarp@lemmy.world avatar

We don't deserve music for other reasons too... like we don't care what the lyrics are even about as long as it "sounds good."

Bluefalcon ,

What are you talking about?

Thought of calling ya
But you won't pick up
Another fortnight lost in America
Move to Florida
Buy the car you want
But it won't start up
Til you touch, touch, touch me

Those are lyrics written by an actual God.

baseless_discourse ,

I think spotify is swedish. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify

Bluefalcon ,

Do you know how strong of a country you have to be to make another live to your standards?

baseless_discourse ,

I think capitalism has already prevailed before America is the dominant force in it.

reverendsteveii ,

https://www.xmanagerapp.com/

Patch your spotify install to get free premium. If they're gonna raise prices and lower what they pay musicians, there's no valid reason not to.

PolarisFx ,
@PolarisFx@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Well this is legit. Thank you

reverendsteveii ,

Alexa, play John Mellencamp - Ain't That America

PiratePanPan ,
@PiratePanPan@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Pssst....

I miss Resonate.

nobleshift ,
@nobleshift@lemmy.world avatar

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    EnderMB ,

    I'd love to, but in terms of pure availability I can get almost everything I've ever wanted to listen to, aside from some weird geoblocking or removal of defunct band's back catalogues.

    reverendsteveii ,

    https://www.xmanagerapp.com/

    *Steal Spotify

    AnxiousDuck ,

    Is there a (possibly libre) way to maintain a structured music library not tied to a streaming service??

    I would happily leave but I fear for my huge library of artists and albums that I have discovered...

    Dry_Monk ,

    It's not easy, fast, or free, but it is worth it. I currently still have a Spotify account, but I'm weaning myself off. I've been going the Bandcamp + jellyfin route. Buy an album a month (about the price of monthly streaming) and add it to my personal library. Next month, check what I've been listening to most on Spotify and buy that. It's twice as expensive (for now) but I'm supporting artists more directly and have an exit strategy for Spotify. Curious about other's approaches!

    UckyBon ,

    That's great! Not sure where you live (because shipping), but a lot of artists (I listen to) have limited physical releases on Bandcamp. Sometimes it's worth the extra few bucks. My digital collection is bigger tho.

    So I actually do spend more on musicians than only streaming services CEO people. There is of course the ecological aspect of the production of the physical releases, but I don't drive nor eat meat. I'd buy their stuff at a concert too.

    I use Slsk for my other needs.

    AceSLS ,

    That's what I do

    Get my Music from different sources (most streaming services can be downloaded from) and then tag them with MusicBrainz Picard. Sorts them neatly, gives them mostly way more metadata than any other streaming service and sometimes I tag them by myself

    Currently using Symphony on android because it supports user defined artist metadata seperators (really wish more music apps would have that feature)

    On PC I'm using mpc and controll it mostly via cli

    AnxiousDuck ,

    Yeah, I've come across MusicBrainz projects and they all seem really nice! I was thinking about organizing just the names and not the files, but might as well go that way sooner or later

    jae ,
    @jae@reddthat.com avatar

    Didn’t see it mentioned, but I self host Navidrome. It’s great and open source. I get most my music from Bandcamp, or even rip CDs I check out from the library.

    AnxiousDuck ,

    Seems nice, thanks! I'd like to give it a try

    KillingTimeItself ,

    weekly PSA that spotify is a dumb company who makes no money because they're stupid.

    To put it bluntly, between the artists, and the musicians, there is the publisher (the traditional music company) the money pretty much only goes to the publisher, because spotify doesn't want to make money, nor do they want artists to make money. And the artists put their shit on spotify because people believe that spending 15 dollars a month on a service that doesnt pay artists, apparently pays artists.

    Go support your local musical artists.

    BURN ,

    Spotify negotiated shit deals when they were a startup and they’ll basically forever be not profitable because of it.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    they should've became a publisher, or started one on the side, the profit would be immense if they thought of doing that.

    BURN ,

    Seriously. They had a completely open market, then essentially signed a perpetual deal where something like 40% of gross income is paid out to the labels. It’s absolutely insane how poorly run they were in the beginning.

    If they had become a publisher, distributor and/or a label, they’d be on top of the world now.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    yeah pretty much. They'd be the single biggest publisher globally, and almost certainly the most profitable.

    Grandwolf319 ,

    Their strategy was probably the classic startup strategy. Grow at all costs and figure out profitability later. These days it’s rather obvious that this strategy sucks and is doomed to fail (for most cases).

    GiveMemes ,

    To add to this, buy their merch and physical copies of their albums. Also, go to shows! Lots of small bands would love a bigger crowd and can be seen for cheap or free.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    exactly this, buy merch, buy albums, give them your money directly if you can. (artists, please just let me give you money, i like your shit, maybe i don't want to buy shit tons of plastic ok?)

    Kolanaki ,
    @Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

    Go support your local musical artists.

    I miss X Fest... :(

    KillingTimeItself ,

    i'm still riding the high of all the older artists from the 90s till now that i've missed out on. We'll see how long that lasts lol.

    shikitohno ,

    And the artists put their shit on spotify because people believe that spending 15 dollars a month on a service that doesnt pay artists, apparently pays artists.

    It's probably more a case of artists acknowledging the fact that streaming services are one of, if not the, primary sources of music discovery and consumption for many these days. Even if they won't make money off it, by not being available on these platforms, they may as well not exist for most people. That's something that only huge, already established names can pull without feeling it.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    you know what else streams your music? The fucking internet, that shits free! Literally just posting your shit on a torrent will give you tons of traction to work with. Especially if you already have a pretty significant listener base. Plus you also get the benefit of people like me who are significantly more inclined to buy physical releases of media.

    Regardless, streaming is a good way of getting people to hear your shit, if you really want to use a streaming service, don't go through a publisher, or at the very least, a mainstream publisher. They tend to fuck you over.

    Churbleyimyam , (edited )

    What are your thoughts around generating traction with a torrent? I have two friends who are both sitting on their albums and thinking about how best to release them. I hope to release something one day too and refuse to use the likes of spotify on principle.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    hmm, if you do release them, it would be prudent to release them with related material, throw in a txt file with some additional little trivia facts or tidbits, as well as some links to places to buy your material, or even donate directly to you. Oh also you should probably throw in some interesting stickers or prints or something, things that aren't clothing and CDs can be interesting sometimes.

    If you want to do a multi platform release, do an exclusive release on the torrents, i.e. throw in some extra unreleased material, or a second mixing/mastering of a track or something. Throwing something in to make the listeners feel appreciated is always good.

    Obviously generate some public attention for it, you're probably only going to attract existing torrent users, but drumming up some sort of conversation around music rights, supporting artists and all that is going to be a good idea. Notably, since you're the artist putting it up, you have the rights over it, so it's perfectly legal. If you want to get really funny you can openly license it, so that way people can torrent it without "technically" breaking the law. Though that's not explicitly required i don't think. Naturally the most obvious way is to title a song "pirate this" or something lmao. "exercise to the user" as us TMC players would say.

    yeah im pretty much out of ideas here lol, hopefully that helped.

    unreasonabro ,

    These are some decent suggestions, I'ma try this with our old albums. aside from tpb what are good options, sitewise, for this? no links just names pls, if you'd be so kind

    KillingTimeItself ,

    idk much about clearnet trackers, so you'd probably wanna go ask around in the piracy instances (dbzer0 is a prominent one, though it's my root instance, so i'm biased lol) for some information on that. But one very real option that you have is just posting the magnet link in the clearnet, since it's not copyrighted material (well, you own the copyright, and you legally allow it to be distributed as such, so it's not like the government is going to whack you upside the head or anything) Makes it easy to get and disseminate, though you would benefit from having it on trackers obviously. Though one really cool thing, is that trackers are pretty autonomous, so chances are if you release it, and it gets significant enough traffic over the clearnet, or attention from nerds like me it'll probably make its way to trackers organically. I make no guarantees but if you give me a shout i can have a look into spreading it onto i2p as well. (you should probably mention that somewhere in the thing so that way people pick up on it)

    Oh and uh one other little thought, you can always put a little tidbit in there like "feel free to send us a few bucks, or share this song with your friends" to promote natural growth of it. There's about as much flexibility to it as you can imagine.

    oh and a final note if you aren't familiar, probably worth being careful about tracker IP leeches, they often just nab ips that visit public trackers and yeet them to ISPs on the regular, shouldn't get you in trouble since its your own material, but they don't care, and the ISP will just send you a cease and desist saying "hey don't do this" or in extreme cases, yeeting your ass. Again, check out the piracy instances, they have useful resources for this stuff.

    unreasonabro ,

    So many pro tips, thanks m8, time to put together some supplementary materials!

    KillingTimeItself ,

    yeah np, always good to spread some info to people looking to find it.

    unreasonabro ,

    by the way, you should play Hades II if you're not already. Its end boss is your username ;)

    KillingTimeItself ,

    the rogue-like? I'm not into rogue-likes myself unfortunately. But that is a very funny spoiler regardless.

    shikitohno ,

    Sure, but the barrier to entry is significant enough to still deter most people. Even assuming they aren't bothering with port forwarding and seeding, most people seem like they can't be bothered with any pattern of consumption more complicated than finding content on major streaming platforms, and the music streaming services haven't yet gotten annoying enough for most people. They'll take a peek, go "Do I want FLAC, V0 or 320? WTF is an APE?" and bail again.

    We can disagree as to whether it should be that way or not, but I'd wager that the reach of streaming services for a new band far exceeds that of uploading a torrent to a random tracker and hoping it takes off. Unless people already know of you to look for your music, you need to hope a huge number of them are just auto-snatching anything new. On private trackers, sure, you'll get a bunch of people who auto-snatch any FLAC upload from the current year, but you're talking about <50,000 users in those cases, and a good chunk of the auto-snatchers are just people looking to build buffer who won't even listen to most of what they snatch. On the other hand, nobody is auto-snatching all the torrents going up on public trackers, they'd run out of space in no time at all.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    i mean yeah, though nothing stops you from putting it up on both services so, don't come crying to me lol.

    Your publisher might but that's because they're a cunt lol. Up to the artist though, personally i'd only release it underground, give it to the people who deserve it. It might take off from there, i'm not going to stop other people from spreading it via clear web mirrors or uploads onto streaming services like youtube or anything.

    Churbleyimyam ,

    This is all assuming that availability is the top priority for all artists. I think spotify has shown 99.999% of artists that their model of maximum availability at all costs simply doesn't work, either in terms of contacting an audience, making any money or valuing music. It just results in the vast majority of artists being insulted and demoralised and the remainder producing music of a relentlessly narrowing artistic scope. Are you more likely to get around 3500 plays on spotify or get £1 in donations off the back of giving your music away for free? It sounds absurd and that's because it is. Most artists will get the same out having their music on spotify for a year as walking out onto the street with an acoustic guitar for half an hour on a Saturday. At least out on the street you're not propping up a capitalist giant and a tiny 'elite' of ultra commercial music producers. For me spotify and it's ilk have been the final nail in the coffin for integrity and reward in releasing music and I would encourage the 99.999% to boycott it and forge ahead with alternatives. Nothing better will emerge until then and artistic culture will continue to become more and more bleak.

    inset ,
    @inset@lemmy.today avatar

    I always wonder how the hell don't make money, it must be some kind of “smart” accounting.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    they don't make money because they're a tech company, they pull in VC funding, and then lose money year after year, they don't need to make any money because the model is to get everyone on your platform, and then start making money. (which apparently spotify hasn't figured out yet)

    Grandwolf319 ,

    Ahhh yes, future enshitification!

    KillingTimeItself ,

    i'm still trying to figure out how they're going to enshittify, because it's already expensive as shit. And they still make no money, so.

    Grandwolf319 ,

    Higher prices, worse quality, intrusive recommendations, ad filled basic tier?

    It all depends on how much people are willing to put up with.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    higher prices would be a tough bargain i think, list price is already 15 dollars a month, which i think is pushing it. They already drop songs on the regular, the only way to make it worse would be to have less songs, i.e. even less worth the price. Recommendations are already a thing, but thats a different problem. Ads already exist, and they've already been memed on, though that is a free tier, so.

    I can't imagine people putting up with much more, given that for fifteen dollars a month you could buying an entire whole ass album from a band that you like every month.

    Grandwolf319 ,

    I 100% agree with everything you said. It’s just that I thought people wouldn’t put up with the stuff Netflix has been pulling but I was wrong.

    Music is different though…

    KillingTimeItself ,

    netflix is also added ad supported tiers at lower prices, so chances are they're the primary account holders. That and the fact that they have a couple really good shows still. Netflix is probably nearly bleeding at the edges, or soon to be bleeding at the edges though, they're probably post pandemic high riding a little bit even now.

    Though it's also worth noting people are actually starting to pirate media more now due to the breadth of streaming services that exist, it doesn't seem to be just the one service, it seems to be the fact that there are 12 now that's causing it.

    kalleboo ,

    It's because they are 100% reliant on the record labels, and the record labels know that. So the record labels can charge Spotify whatever they want, because what is Spotify going to do?

    That's why Spotify tried to hard to move into Podcasts and now Audio books, so that they are less reliant on the record labels.

    Breve ,

    The big record labels are shareholders in Spotify so they're happy to get less money in streaming royalties because that's the part they have to share with artists, but the value of their shares they get to keep all for themselves.

    https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/who-really-owns-spotify-955388/

    KillingTimeItself ,

    ah of course, schizo economics, how could i forget. "trust me, i will hold shares for you, i promise" Though this still isn't a good position to be in, because now the publishing companies essentially run spotify, so spotify fucked themselves even more lol.

    BURN ,

    Definitely thinking about cancelling with this. I’ve used Spotify as long as I can remember, after finally switching over from pandora radio.

    Their shuffle and discovery algorithms suck so much now that it’s nearly impossible to listen to more than 20-30 songs they just keep repeating.

    Add on the extra, inserted ads in podcasts, there’s really no reason to continue to use their platform.

    Then again, I’m probably going to YT music, which is only marginally better, but since I pay for YT premium already there’s no additional cost

    huginn ,

    If you find a better place to discover music please lmk (no sarcasm)

    Their discovery sucks lately and I hate it.

    VieuxQueb ,
    @VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca avatar

    I like Tidal and rhey pay the most per play to artist's.

    NielsBohron ,
    @NielsBohron@lemmy.world avatar

    I have tons of playlists and saved music on spotify; how is Tidal at importing data from other services? It's not really a deal breaker, but I'm really picky about my music (so I don't really care about "radio" features or curated playlists), so it'd be a real pain in the ass to start from scratch.

    VieuxQueb ,
    @VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca avatar

    They have a feature to import your music from other sites...
    https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/ca37e407-71ee-4828-85f7-ba54dc65e16d.png

    VieuxQueb ,
    @VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca avatar

    It does have Spotify in it.

    MossyFeathers ,

    I thought that was Qobuz. At least I can actually buy music through Qobuz I guess.

    Blackmist ,

    I wish they had something between "top songs" and "completely random" when listening to a band.

    Like, sure, Sweet Child of Mine, Welcome to the Jungle, and Paradise City are great and all, but there's only so often you can listen to them, and the only alternative is to be reminded that Chinese Democracy exists.

    Sabin10 ,

    YouTube music has something like this. You choose a few artists you like then tune the randomness of what it plays. I have discovered more new artists Ina few months of using it than I have in the decade before that.

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/88bf8af2-6c48-4ffb-b16a-c345e71715ff.png

    andrew_bidlaw ,
    @andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Never used it, but I just want to appreciate the design of these three icons: just a speaker radiating sound coming to something resembling a solar system. Simple, yet cool.

    lesbian_seagull ,

    Where can I find this setting in YT Music? I’ve had them for a while and never knew this existed…

    Sabin10 ,

    For me it's near the top on the apps homepage. Looks like this

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/3d8d0d7b-a1fe-4a7a-a65f-7b657e445985.png

    ElvenMithril ,

    haha, so true. On the other hand Chinese Democracy is not that bad ;)

    IchNichtenLichten ,

    Spotify can die in a fire for all I care. Sail the high seas and if you like an artist buy physical releases/merch/tickets.

    jumjummy ,

    So instead of having the artists make the small per stream income, you suggest they get $0? Buying their releases/merch/tickets is irrelevant to the platform. If anything, the model of these streaming platforms is just further shifting to advertisement for artists to drive people to shows.

    IchNichtenLichten ,

    you suggest they get $0?

    They make more from what I suggested than they do from Spotify.

    jumjummy ,

    Of course they do, but those suggested options are the same for Spotify users too. I’m not seeing the connection here unless you’re saying Spotify users are less likely to buy merch or tickets. Pirate what you want, but trying to spin the argument this way is just disingenuous.

    Edit: and to add to this, I would argue that platforms like Spotify and other subscription models are key ways for new people to be introduced to a bad. (Short of having your song blow up on something like Tik Tok of course)

    IchNichtenLichten ,

    Pirate what you want, but trying to spin the argument this way is just disingenuous.

    I'm not following you. Spotify is notorious for paying out very little to artists, so therefore they don't deserve my business, fuck 'em.

    Instead I like to support the artists directly.

    As to your second point, I've never had a problem discovering new music.

    jumjummy ,

    My point is people saying “Spotify doesn’t pay artists enough so just pirate everything” is disingenuous. Nothing about paying for a platform (Spotify, TIDAL, Apple, YouTube, etc.) precludes you from supporting artists through other means as well.

    The second point didn’t imply that this is the o ly way to discover music, but it absolutely is an avenue where many people discover new artists.

    IchNichtenLichten ,

    I don’t think you know what disingenuous means.

    RaoulDook ,

    I still buy everything on CD that I can get from good bands. Nothing beats CD quality and durability. My CDs from 30+ years ago still play just fine except for the few that have too many scratches from abuse.

    After I get a new CD I rip it to high quality MP3 and add it to my personal streaming library.

    IchNichtenLichten ,

    I've seen quite a few download codes included with vinyl releases that have 24 bit wav/flac files available. Some will even offer 88.2/96kHz files.

    You could argue that the quality difference isn't detectable between those and an MP3 rip of a CD though.

    kn0wmad1c ,
    @kn0wmad1c@programming.dev avatar

    15 hours hardly covers a single book

    arandomthought ,

    I've heard good things about tidal in regards to paying artists (more) fairly. Does anyone know more about the alternatives or has experience with them? Also in terms of the library size I'm not sure how the services compare...

    Shawdow194 ,
    @Shawdow194@kbin.social avatar

    I love my Tidal subscription. Most everything that's on Spotify is on Tidal now unless it's an exclusive. Most annoying part will be tranferring your playlists

    GeneralVincent ,

    I believe tidal actually has a larger library than Spotify, and offers a tier that lets you listen to higher quality of music. Similar pricing to Spotify I think. I had it for a while and really liked it, only stopped paying for it because I'm broke so I'm sailing the seas for now

    arandomthought ,

    Thank you for sharing your experience and may the winds blow ever in your favor! Ahoy!

    UndercoverUlrikHD ,

    Gotta fund Barcelona's €240 million sponsor deal somehow

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