I have a hit on Spotify.

Well, that’s relative, of course. I have ONE SONG (not even my song) that has gotten more than 80k streams. But, across the time that this song has been played, I have received ZERO dollars from Spotify. True, this song was put out by a German label. It is a Radiohead cover song of an obscure track off the In Rainbows EXTRAS disc.

What if we could get ONE streaming service to give $0.1 per stream, it might change the game for us smaller artists. One penny each time a song is streamed.

50,000 x 0.1 = 5,000 pennys. Or 50 dollars. I don’t think that’s going to break Spotify or Apple Music.

But that’s not the way the world of music works, at the moment. There was a little fiasco in 1998 that changed everything as music labels were terrified of MP3 downloads and streaming services starting up. They made a deal with the devil. For the purposes of a podcast, streaming service, or reviews of music, the publishers DON’T HAVE TO PAY FOR USAGE.

https://www.copyright.gov/dmca/

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Here’s the heart of the act:

“2. encouraging copyright owners to give greater access to their works in digital formats by providing them with legal protections against unauthorized access to their works.”

Actually, the act provides NO LEGAL PROTECTION for the artists. The protection is for the streaming services and listeners. Unauthorized access to their works, is a smoke screen.

Spotify is not unauthorized. Thus Spotify pays typical artists $0.0000323 per stream. Thus my 50,000 streams have earned me nothing, rather than $50. Don’t you think musicians should be paid for their music?

The stories are all over the web. Google streaming royalty payments and you’ll see this fight has been waged by ARTISTS for years. The legal machine is paid by the music labels, like Universal Music, who is 3X bigger than Spotify.

Sure, I understand, Spotify is not turning a profit yet. Well, they’re paying their CEO way too much money and ripping off all of us creators. I’d love to see Spotify be replaced and watch the old streaming world FAIL.

If you love music, seek out their music in alternative formats. Maybe Vinyl is a new growth market. But you can purchase music from your favorite artists on Bandcamp and SoundCloud. Go support music and musicians you love.

Let’s kill the ripoff of the streaming industry. Why isn’t this a TOP TOPIC at SXSW every single year? Yeah, Music Trade Show, lots of musicians, and no one is talking about the STREAMING CRISIS.