Taylor Swift, Spotify and the Musical Food Chain Myth

Taylor Swift, Spotify and the Musical Food Chain Myth(performermag.com)

13 points by jeanbebe 11 years ago | 3 comments

wodenokoto 11 years ago |

It sounds like people used to buy her CD, but not listen to it. Now that she is payed per play the money is dry.

Actually it just sounds like her fan base has eroded, and nobody wants to listen to her music.

I think there is one fair point: Established artists at record companies have always been getting pennies on the dollar of CD sales, while independent artist got everything after expenses when selling CD's at their shows. With the streaming model it seems like everybody gets paid as if they were on a major deal - it is just not everyone who benefit from the investment and exposure that a major deal gives.

Ntrails 11 years ago | |

I partially agree.

I simply don't accept the complaints over people not coming to see the live shows. If people don't care enough to come out and pay to see you perform, it seems to me the answer is more likely that the artist is insufficiently popular to fill the venue - which I assume in principle was profitable given a certain level of attendance.

However, CD sales pay a hell of a lot more per play per track than 0.06 cents. According to my maths[0] for an album (songs ~4 mins long) you'd have to spend 1000 hours listening to make the same $10 as a sale. However, is this not how radios have paid artists for years? Now we get to listen to what we actually like

[0] (10/0.0006)*(4/60) =~ 1111

danieltillett 11 years ago |

The basic problem is there is so much good music out there and it has become so easy to find (and cheap to make) that it impossible for most musicians to make anything but the most basic living. I don't have a solution.