Article about Spotify ownership including facts, figures and pie charts. 

www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/who-really-owns-spotify-955388/

Article about Spotify ownership including facts, figures and pie charts. 

www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/who-really-owns-spotify-955388/
Not Google or Facebook then?

I was thinking, how about those how own the copyright and performing rights of the tunes, songs, etc?

Not Google or Facebook then?

I was thinking, how about those how own the copyright and performing rights of the tunes, songs, etc?


I like that it's Swedish and not some Silicon Valley company. Not to be discriminatory, but the latter has an awful reputation and for good reason. But in the end, it's a publicly traded company and the end goal is profit for shareholders.

I was thinking, how about those how own the copyright and performing rights of the tunes, songs, etc?


Well, that's the crux of the problem. The writers, performers, etc are being paid almost nothing at all. Very, very little. There is definitely an element of ripoff going on. Musicians/songwriters used to make very decent money from royalties and physical sales, but no longer. It now forces them out on the road, even those getting up there in age, because live performance (and concert merchandise) is now really their only (or at least MAIN) source of income. It's a sad state of affairs.

Well, that's the crux of the problem. The writers, performers, etc are being paid almost nothing at all. Very, very little. There is definitely an element of ripoff going on. Musicians/songwriters used to make very decent money from royalties and physical sales, but no longer. It now forces them out on the road, even those getting up there in age, because live performance (and concert merchandise) is now really their only (or at least MAIN) source of income. It's a sad state of affairs.
Oh my...?

At on stage, I seem to recall that the Beatles were not available on Spotify.

Well, that's the crux of the problem. The writers, performers, etc are being paid almost nothing at all. Very, very little. There is definitely an element of ripoff going on. Musicians/songwriters used to make very decent money from royalties and physical sales, but no longer. It now forces them out on the road, even those getting up there in age, because live performance (and concert merchandise) is now really their only (or at least MAIN) source of income. It's a sad state of affairs.

Yikes. I didn't know that the situation with Spotify was that bad for a lot of musicians.  :(

Yikes. I didn't know that the situation with Spotify was that bad for a lot of musicians.  :(


To give you just one example of what pirates all of these streaming services are, the legendary Roger McGuinn of the Byrds said that Pandora played the Byrds 1960s classic "Eight Miles High" (Of which he is co-writer) 228,086 times in the second quarter of 2016 and paid him a grand total of $9.15. Spotify is just as bad. If it had sold 228,086 records (which it did in the 60s) he would have made a fortune.

To give you just one example of what pirates all of these streaming services are, the legendary Roger McGuinn of the Byrds said that Pandora played the Byrds 1960s classic "Eight Miles High" (Of which he is co-writer) 228,086 times in the second quarter of 2016 and paid him a grand total of $9.15. Spotify is just as bad. If it had sold 228,086 records (which it did in the 60s) he would have made a fortune.


You have to take into account the fact that what came before Spotify wasn't the 1960s, but the pirating age of the 2000s. Music revenue plummeted, and streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music etc. brought it back from the brink.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/music-industry-sales/

http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/30-years-of-music-sales-2.png

You have to take into account the fact that what came before Spotify wasn't the 1960s, but the pirating age of the 2000s. Music revenue plummeted, and streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music etc. brought it back from the brink.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/music-industry-sales/

http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/30-years-of-music-sales-2.png

Too bad some musicians had to get f'ed in the process.

You have to take into account the fact that what came before Spotify wasn't the 1960s, but the pirating age of the 2000s. Music revenue plummeted, and streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music etc. brought it back from the brink.



Not really. Now that I think of it it's kind of a microcosm of what's happening in the whole country where 1/10 of 1% of the population controls all the wealth. The only people making money from Spotify and the like are the massively, massively commercial popular people (Of whom there are only a handful) who get billions of hits. The Taylor Swift types. In the days of physical sales (and airplay) it was much more evenly spread out. Even moderately good sellers could earn a very decent living from sales and royalties. And "legacy" type artists like the aforementioned Roger McGuinn could get by decently on royalties from their past successes. All that is gone now.

Not really. Now that I think of it it's kind of a microcosm of what's happening in the whole country where 1/10 of 1% of the population controls all the wealth. The only people making money from Spotify and the like are the massively, massively commercial popular people (Of whom there are only a handful) who get billions of hits. The Taylor Swift types. In the days of physical sales (and airplay) it was much more evenly spread out. Even moderately good sellers could earn a very decent living from sales and royalties. And "legacy" type artists like the aforementioned Roger McGuinn could get by decently on royalties from their past successes. All that is gone now.


Well, that's because there was more money to go around, as displayed on that chart.

Gaining a billion streams might be difficult now, but there's no saying that it will be a difficult feat to achieve 10 years from now, when inevitably more people will be streaming. I mean, when Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne hit 10 million streams in 2007 on YouTube it was considered an insane success. Now some 10 and a few years later, even an artist of middling to low success can have 10 million views.