Check out Eargasm Earplugs! bit.ly/3DbhMdz

@done_produtora

Жыл бұрын

is taylor wrong?

@glennjbrown3388

Жыл бұрын

Great info, I really enjoyed the breakdown, cheers

@nogoodnecktie12

Жыл бұрын

love my eargasms ill order from your link when these are wore out

@eugenemonfourny6119

10 ай бұрын

Spotify but I still buy CDs

We've made it kind of a band ritual at this point to take the $25 cheque we get from Spotify every 3 to 6 months, deposit it, withdraw it in cash, and use it to get McDonalds.

@Caffeine_Club

Жыл бұрын

Your 'band' must be two people, because $25 at McDonalds will get you about two meals and some change these days. 😉

@Magdalena8008s

Жыл бұрын

@@Caffeine_Club I can spend 25 bucks at McDonald's and feed 5 people for days. What in the world are you getting for it to be that expensive?

@salembeats1875

Жыл бұрын

What’s your band name bro

@Beanbag777

Жыл бұрын

McDonald’s is the worst food ever

@OffSumThraxx

Жыл бұрын

@@Beanbag777 yeah but its also affordable and one of the few places thats running overnight when you're on the road with only $25.

I remember when Spotify first came out I was amazed that I could stream all of that music, legally, for free. I think if they had started with a monthly tier of $30 or even $40 a ton of people would have signed up because we were used to having to pay for either CDs or iTunes to get music legally. But once they introduced this free model, everyone got used to the idea that music should be free. It's hard to get people to start paying for things that used to be free.

Spotify has at least introduced me to a countless number of incredible bands I never would have heard of otherwise.

@Beanbag777

Жыл бұрын

But you continue to listen to them on Spotify which makes absolutely no difference to them in the end 🤣

@benjammin7993

Жыл бұрын

@@Beanbag777 yes i do, and i also buy their merch, CDs, etc.

@bastiaan4129

Жыл бұрын

I've seen plenty of bands I discovered through Spotify play live, sometimes bought their merch. They'll always earn more through that than through a handfull of Spotify streams.

@gaargy1

Жыл бұрын

I feel that same way about youtube

@SilentAttackTV

Жыл бұрын

In my experience youtube is 100 times better at recommending me new music and artists. Spotify just recommends me more of the same

Independent artists should continue to stay focused, play shows and grow their catalog. Keep releasing music. Over time it does start to make a difference.

I remember Billy Corgan on Joe Rogan saying how the record labels could've gotten better deals for the artists but they wanted more control over more money, he said the artists are basically getting pimped. It's a quite good interview.

This is one of the best, most concise explanations on this topic I've heard. I finally think I understand how it all works!

@ThePunkRockMBA

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@WarGamerGirl

Жыл бұрын

I agree. This was a really good video. I usually look at how KZread pays creators, but I've never really looked into how Spotify does. Thanks =)

There are 2 succinctly sad answers to "why doesn't streaming pay more money?" As Finn said: "Record labels" but as everyone should also understand: "It sucks to suck". It's never been easier and cheaper to create and crucially distribute music globally and there are millions of musical lobsters in the $15b industry bucket. If you aren't being plucked out by a label and relying solely on being what the world wants to listen to, well, you aren't going to make a living unless you have the listeners. There have never been more artists in history and they're all getting a taste of how incredibly difficult living off of art without a sponsor is.

@dineshveliath

Жыл бұрын

well said

@quas3728

Жыл бұрын

I don't understand why everyone only blame record labels. Daniel Ek became billionaire for being spotify ceo.

@zacksguitarhacks6390

Жыл бұрын

Might as well be as original as we can be then right?

@hrotha

Жыл бұрын

@@quas3728 Agreed. The people running are filthy rich and have a virtual monopoly on the streaming industry, yet they can barely make a profit? Either their business is being run horribly, or the higher ups are ripping people off, or this business model just isn't viable. In none of those cases should the artists be footing the bill. Anyways, go buy from Bandcamp y'all

@quas3728

Жыл бұрын

@@hrotha well said. Bandcamp is the best!

Call me a goober but I’m still buying CD’s - nothing takes me back to my childhood bedroom like flipping through linear notes, reading lyrics and gawking at the attention to detail some artists put into packaging. I know there’s a small percentage of peeps that understand this, the happiness tangible media can bring.

@evergray5063

Жыл бұрын

Also there’s no comparison in quality. Every streaming company uses lossy, compressed bit rate files for streams, except (I believe) Tidal and some companies that offer a lossless file or .wav for download. The lowest quality (128k) mp3 LITERALLY removes 90% of data during compression... NINTEY F’N PERCENT!! If you bought a hamburger and they stripped 90% of it during “processing”, is that still the hamburger you ordered?

@jynxycats

Жыл бұрын

@@evergray5063 Amazon Music has a full HD option, but honestly... the vast majority of listeners don't care about this kind of stuff. Let's be real. Most are listening to their music on subpar headphones/car stereos/phones anyway

@evergray5063

Жыл бұрын

@@jynxycats it’s unfortunate people don’t seem to care. As someone involved in music and PRODUCTION for a long time, a lot of time, energy and effort goes into capturing every nuance of a recorded signal, then processing fx in the highest quality possible, then mixing and mastering using processes that retain all that quality, just for people to not care, or not even know that they are missing out on a huge amount of what SHOULD be there... but, whatcha gon’ do?

@ZarathosDaimaoh

Жыл бұрын

I'm guessing that such a trend is gone ... but the last time i purchased a cd , there were some insane anti-piracy drms and measures that made it a truly bad experience for a paying customer . Like being forced to install a custom player to listen to my cd on my pc ... and it even being incompatible with my old Hifi . I ripped the cd's audio to get around it , but this enraged me . Just like it enraged me to see minutes of anti piracy display on a paid dvd or bluray , and shitty menus , when pirates just launched the movie acquried in whatever quality they wanted . I do agree that quality should still be a concern in the digital realm , but i'm not going back to physical medium for most medias

@mooshafesterbone1645

Жыл бұрын

Same. I love it. I used to take every one of my minimum wage paychecks and go after school and literally buy CD's based on the cover art sometimes. Ive found bands in genres I would have never thought I liked that way. That's how I stumbled on The Pharcyde back in the day and I still listen to that album sometimes.

this is a great video dude. I have a bunch of music on Spotify, I barely have 6,000 monthly listeners, but I still end up getting about $150 a month from Spotify. So this was super informative, I was thinking everyone must be making millions, but this makes a lot of sense.

@Tetarkall

Жыл бұрын

That’s a pretty impressive amount dude! I mean, at least it can help go towards gear and merch, idk if you play live or not, but we do so much better off of merch than streaming

@wynton921

10 ай бұрын

If a streaming service offered artists 100% of the subscription revenue in exchange for a monthly license fee to use the service, would you switch to that platform?

Dude this is the first time I've seen someone explain this correctly. Artists are always taking up beef with the wrong party, when the real reason their not taking home much from streaming, is their far less than artist friendly record deals. Labels are the problem in those situations.

Don't get me wrong, I think Spotify has it's faults in it's practices but i'm so glad you addressed the misconception of 'spotify paying artists nothing' because this completely depends on your record deal. If you're earning nothing that's completely down to what your agreement was, myself and other musicians I know do very well on spotify (in relation to getting paid something, obviously the amount per stream is contestable...) because we knew that would be the case from the get go. Also spotify does wonders for young and upcoming bands on their platform via their play-listing, it's BY FAR the most friendly to new music compared to other DSP's. In all honesty my band owes it's recent popularity to spotify play-listing.

I think a lot of people keep forgetting that if Spotify and the other companies go away, a lot of people will just go back to pirating. Maybe they have been swept away by the bizarre vinyl resurgence and think that everybody should pay the same amounts even for digital stuff. Although Spotify also takes some part of the blame. Clearly there is a desire from the users to have more direct control on how their subscription amounts are distributed, but there does not seem to be any kind of innovation on that level.

@greggiorgio1846

Жыл бұрын

It's possible to make pirating very difficult. Just have bots that scrub the internet of licensed files. How do you think KZread keeps track of videos that have licensed songs in them?

@ZarathosDaimaoh

Жыл бұрын

@@greggiorgio1846 Sure , but as ludicrous as it sounds , there have been a few lulls and "gap" moments where the most accessible and popular piracy tools got taken down , and enough people jut gave up and checked out , instead of surging back to legal alternatives . The better balance and alternative have been so far those streaming services ... them crashing down , might not have the result some hopes . Like said above what's needed are better re-distributions for the artists .

@dexocube

Жыл бұрын

Bro I would rather people pirate any music I might make, than some a-hole company take all of the money it would have made.

@AnarchistMetalhead

Жыл бұрын

@@greggiorgio1846 good luck scrubbing sites from non western countries

@greggiorgio1846

Жыл бұрын

@@AnarchistMetalhead Nevermind, we shouldn't do anything. Good plan!

“But first I want to thank Spotify for sponsoring this video” would have been a funny opening 😂 Just kidding! Great video describing the mechanics of the industry. It’s also sad that people often tend to blame the ones they can easily identify on their radar: like Spotify without digging deeper in the way the whole labels part

This is one of the most important videos you’ve done. At the end of the day Spotify has helped me discover so many bands I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. So many albums streamed. And because I know of these bands I can go see them live, which is how they make their living.

One detail you left out (and that complicates things exponentially) when discussing raising prices is the global nature of Spotify. $9.99/month is the rate for a subscription in the US, but Spotify is available in many other countries where that's a LOT of money, like India or South America. Part of the reason behind the success of Spotify is that they offer different subscription prices that are affordable for each market (unlike, say, iTunes, who tried to charge $1 per download for years, to people in countries where $1/hr was considered a good salary). So when people in poor countries buy a Spotify subscription for less than $2 a month, that also affects the total revenue they make and the pool of money that have to distribute amongst all artists. That's why there's no way of measuring or accurately calculating the money per stream a song makes.

@lesterama6110

Жыл бұрын

100% true! In Perú I'm paying almost $7 for My duos subscription (me and My wife)

What alot of artist don't realize when they sign to a record label is that you are giving up your assets, and what the labels want is your music/branding to make money off of. But what alot of artist don't realize is in your deal...is you as the signed act has to pay for every decision you make out of your advance and a percentage on top of that back after said contract is done even if it's a flop or successful. The music industry is a bad credit card deal with a high interest rate that you can't get out of or pay down. It's a bad venture capitalist deal all around for fame with no fortune sadly.

Hey Finn, thanks for laying out the whole Spotify situation so concisely. I watch your PRMBA channel regularly and this was definitely one of your most informative videos, in a long list of informative videos. You reinforced that as long as there have been labels (criminals) , artists have been getting jacked. Love your work. What you do is really important culturally and historically. Don't stop .

Great video! Would love to see more industry related content like this

Ive been supporting independent artists since the late 90's because of major labels and their business practices for decades. Thank you for the knowledge. I still believe independence is the future of music/art

I’ve been saying for years that record labels are pretty much pointless nowadays. Yeah distribution can be a hassle but honestly record labels, especially in the past 20 years, basically do nothing now and have the artists do all the work while taking a massive cut of their revenue. Streaming makes it so much easier to get your music out there into the world for people to listen too.

@nutyyyy

Жыл бұрын

Exactly. Fair enough in the days of physical media and radio being the only real means of accessing music, but these days they are really unnecessary.

Finn, I love your music industry/technology videos. I think it's super important to inform people (especially people considering a career in music) about how the industry REALLY works and not how people THINK it works.

Problem is many artists know that being independent is the way if you actually want to make good money. But at the same time they know to get that initial push out there they might need label support so they willingly sign these deals that openly rip them off. But the channels are certainly there for independent artists to get lucky and grow naturally (tiktok etc). Its not completely impossible to grow yourself on your own but you will need a shit ton of luck aswell.

Glad you made this video and made it easy to understand. I thought it was more common knowledge that record labels get paid, not artists but apparently not

1. Really love how you broke this down as a whole. Covered all sides of perspective, while also breaking down the math and showing what people don’t realize when it comes to the actual numbers. 2. New video format is clean. I dig the little sound effects also. Very curious to see how you’re going to build with it. Solid work

Being in a band, I’m definitely taking notes that on what you say Finn. Thanks again.

Saw that one of the clips Finn used featured This Wild Life’s Petaluma stained glass. I’ve loved that band for years and Finn also has a good interview with their vocalist Kevin about their decision to go independent.

@micro-babe

Жыл бұрын

They're so good. They put on such a fun show.

Eargasm earplugs are well worth it and a must for any kind of show. Hear the music and hear the next day. Cool to see Finn sponsored by them

You’re right that the real answer is we gotta hold the labels accountable and support independent artists to make not being signed a more viable option. We gotta change the system. Until the system changes though, if people like a band (especially a smaller band) they should buy their merch, buy their music on bandcamp (and artists, put your music on bandcamp please! Let me pay you!), go see them live, etc.

This is why more artists are owning their own music. Record labels will be a thing of the past.

Highly informative video! Gonna show it to anyone who complains about Spotify not paying artists.

Everyone wants to complain about Spotify paying artists, but nobody talks about labels not paying artists

What a great video, well done on breaking down the end to end model in a simple way. Hopefully lots of people watch this.

wow, this is a really good explanatory video about Spotify. I really hope this one blows up just on how informative it is.

musicians: yeah, our music is constantly devalued. nobody wants to pay us for our hard work, the industry is broken, man. those same musicians: yeah, i got a cracked pro-tools, cracked ozone 10, cracked serum, cracked distressor, but like i can't afford to pay for all these plugins.

There was one missing piece to the history of Spotify, and how they treated Beta Users. When Spotify first started up, in Beta, they had an entirely different platform. It was based on user uploads, via torrent. Music was then streamed via torrent. Spotify promised Beta users that if they uploaded X amount of music (i think it was 20GB?), they would earn a lifetime membership to Spotify. I joined the Beta, uploaded the maximum amount of music they would allow at the time (22GB?), and set out enjoying the first cool streaming platform i had tried. It took a week or so to upload all of my music at the time. Several months later, the music industry went after Spotify, claiming that the torrent streaming they were using was too close to the pirating that was occurring, and that they may have a lot of their music from illegal downloaders. Spotify then negotiated with the industry to be able to legally (according to the labels' lawyers) stream their music. Once this happened, Spotify notified us beta users that got their platform on the map, that we could get 3 months of Spotify for 99p a month, then it would be at the regular price. I figured 3 bucks wasn't too bad, and that it would go back to being free (that was the regular price for us, before this). No, it did not go back to being free, nor was it at any discounted rate. It was the same price that everyone else had to pay for streaming. I was so angry that they basically did a flim-flam on us, that i will never pay them for streaming again. I would rather pay Apple, since they are an established brand that never deceived its users to get more users.

Great job for about a year I was able to make a full time living off of streams as an independent. People always talk about greed of the corporations, but no one talks about the greed of the artist that want to be signed, rich and famous. If you are truly doing this for the art you can easily promote yourself in today's world.

Another excellent., informative, thorough and well done info video. Rock on, Finn!!

In the 90s I bought on average 4 albums a month (4 X $20) for about $80. Now I get almost every album ever recorded for $15 per month. I think Spotify significantly devalued the industry when they first entered the market but that genie is now out of the bottle.

@greggiorgio1846

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, I agree. Raise the price.. I mean SPOTIFY isn't even making a profit. So they are destroying the music industry and slowly going out of business at the same time. Nice move morons.

@burningwing0

Жыл бұрын

I understand what you’re saying, but at the time they were competing with Napster, limewire, etc, which were free.

@RafitoOoO

Жыл бұрын

Their competition was literally piracy. They convinced people it was easier to pay a small fee for the convenience.

@dbgrfdg

Жыл бұрын

Where do I even begin... You get to keep the albums for longer than a month, forever in fact. You don't only pay the label as a middle man but also the store and stuff like packkging, transportation. You don't just get the mp3 files, you get a piece of memorabilia (that can even be resold and in some cases gain value over time, I certainly have a few of those albums) And just because you have accses to every song on spotify, doesn't mean you can listen to every single song at once

@greggiorgio1846

Жыл бұрын

@@burningwing0 Pretty sure those things were gone by then. They killed the Itunes store though!

Those cheeky mgs sound effects were so cool

Really like this business case study. Reminds me a lot of my management strategy class from college where we’d analyze companies financial data and think of growth strategies based on it. Would love an interview with a current or former record label executive to set the record straight and learn how bands can negotiate their contracts. Peace. Good work

You’re part of the reason I like rock as a whole as much as I do, I started watching your videos right when I started really listening to rock and I’ve found so many great bands that I love listening to because of you

@ThePunkRockMBA

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

🙏🏽 Great introduction to a very complicated topic.

Hey Finn, love your videos! I was wondering what your opinion of Static Dress is?

Helpful video. Thanks for making it. Be blessed

Great video thank you for making it.

Good video. As far as I've looked into this, you got everything right. Most people are surprised when I tell them that Spotify has never made a profit and that most of the money they take in goes to the record labels.

Great video Finn! You successfully and easily explained how spotify pays out royalties and how streaming services work. I do believe that spotify devalued the industry but I think its a somewhat "small" price to pay and that artists pay as well in order to be discovered by users because then people can actually buy their merch and go to their concerts which is where the artists can really benefit directly from their fan's money rather than having to pay a significant percentage of the streaming money to the label. I would say that streaming is kind of a means to an end sort of thing for artists.

If you want to support a band, see them live and buy some merch at the show. The band makes a much larger cut from those sales. A good portion of my music collection I have gotten by purchasing the CDs at the shows from the band merch booth (yes, I buy and collect CDs, even though I listen to streaming music mostly, it's just my thing).

Lots of true statements here! Keep it up fellow independent artists, it’s possible to make it happen!

Yes! This is the kind of content that made me fall in love with PRMBA back in the day. Business-oriented but through the prism of popular music. Informative, funny and challenging. I know the “Wikipedia” vids get the most views but I’d love to see more of these types sprinkled throughout

My friend is the songwriter and guitarist for The Sweet Mercy Band, he has shown me the checks from streaming and basically he makes enough to pay for the next album from them. Not bad for an independent band.

Labels have always had a very one-sided relationship with artists. I read three books about the industry in the late 90's early 2000's and remember being super disillusioned with how it worked. But even if a newly "discovered" act got a crappy deal, the labels didn't touch merchandising and endorsement deals. That's what was recommended artists fight to keep to themselves to make money from their work. Napster didn't almost kill the industry, the industry's refusal to adapt and reform almost killed it. The tech industries saw the opportunity and took over. The labels then used their power to insert themselves between the artist and the distributer to suck as much money as they could from both. They came up with and standardized the 360 deals which dips into every single revenue stream an artists has. Whereas before you may never see a dime from mechanical or publishing royalties because your crappy 10 points from you contract was never going to catch up to the ever growing advance debt, after havimg to cover all the bullcrap "expenses" the label "incurred" like loss of inventory, promotional costs, etc, you could count on the money from your merch table, and being featured in an Earnie Ball string ad in a Sweetwater catalog. Now that same shitty 10% cut deal applies to all of those. Even if the label didn't move a finger to generate money from it. Record Label business model has always been abusive, and it's only gotten worse. Artists I know that are signed to major labels can only make money from their own T-Shit company that can't have any obvious affiliation to their band to keep the label's greedy tentacles off it. I feel the music industry doesn't "help" artists break out. They are gate keepers. They own the gates. They always have. They wield their power to subjugate every player in the industry. You have to basically accept becoming their indentured servant for passage through the gate and they try to destroy you if you defy them (30 Seconds to Mars vs EMI for example). It is the only fully legal (and glamorized) model of indentured servitude in modern existence. It shouldn't be this way. Especially when the music industry no longer does any significant distribution of their own anymore that contributes to the majority of their revenue. There are some artists that are trying to come up with some interesting models to help independent artists make a living from their music and I hope some of these work out. I just think a talented artist that didn't start out with an advantage shouldn't have to chose between being famous and broke, or remaining in the underground forever to not have to give up all the fruits of their labor to a label.

I think the best of both worlds is supporting directly the bands that you love. As a christian metalhead, the bands I listen to the most are really small so even though I mainly listen to them on spotify, I also buy cds for my car and probably go bandcamp when I'll get out of school

I don’t use Spotify. I use other services but I also buy albums I like from artists I like.

I loved this video so much! Though I don't agree with you 100% of the time (I do 80%), this video right here is pure gold. Very informative, thank you so much!

This was an interesting video, really consistent with the "MBA" concept...well done sir!

As someone who works on CS for Spotify, customers would go balistic and cancel immediately if they pay anything over the 9.99 of the Individual service they pay

I have some videos on my old laptop of that first Fatse show he mentioned in the podcast. At the time I was trying to start a band with him and some of his friends but it really wasn't working out. Sick af that he's doing it !

I love this kind of video of yours, I always learn something and manage to stay focused all along! 😂🤘

I just hope people will continue to think about the billionaires. What happens to them if they have to shell out a few bucks more and not be able to fund their wargames projects.

I have one good advice to support artists even more We use Spotify etc but not all the time, If you are watching something on youtube just play some music on Spotify but turn down the volume, you will watch your content and support musicians at the same time

I think it's cool that the office you showed is the office for Epitaph records. That label and their subsidy Hellcat got me into Punk in the early 2000s.

my whole life, the story has been "artists aren't getting paid by the music industry." when cassettes and cds were introduced, it was "record companies are grabbing all the money people are shelling out for these new formats and not paying the artists" just like now with streaming. but there's more music than ever, and some musicians are turning into billionaires. at a certain point, it's just another fight among people wealthier than me. really, artists need to suck it up and hire lawyers. they're super expensive and not fun to be around (i used to be one) but we've seen the alternative now for decades: the labels have lawyers already, and you will be screwed if you don't too.

"Take a few minutes out of your day to support independent artists. Stream their music, share it on your social media, buy some merch, go to their shows. Every time you do that, you'll be striking a blow in favor of artists" - Finn McKenty

Thanks for the really informative video man. God bless you! :)

Very important topic that you raise. I use Tidal instead of Spotify. There more is paid to the artists and 10% of the monthly price goes directly to the most listened artist. I also buy CDs, especially in the week of the release since it has the greatest impact on the chart position.

Also those smaller artists are monetizing their music in ways that they couldn't before Spotify. Before it was practically giving it away to get noticed, so more people are able to get into the business. A little income through streams can be better than not having any income income at all

Didn't expect you to mention Fats'e! Such a great artist. His new album is fantastic! Thanks for breaking all of this down!

@lukehunker6429

Жыл бұрын

took me a while to warm up to it, but definitely now a favorite

@NickMcMillen16

Жыл бұрын

@@lukehunker6429 yeah, I just really love math rock and the riffs in his album are just so nice along with the chill emo vibe. Enjoying it for sure

Beautiful work here

Great video, even though I wish you wouldn't have skipped over iTunes and the digital download era that came after Napster. I was a while before streaming came into the picture.

Streaming royalties can't be that bad if Matt Farley earns ~$60,000 year writing silly songs about poop. He quit his day job and is a full-time musician now.

@CBXweb

Жыл бұрын

Hell yea, shoutout to Matt Farley, shoutout Bonezone

@robreeto

Жыл бұрын

Seriously, beats working 12hrs a day in a factory lol

@EmmureMARIO64

Жыл бұрын

Spotify be like “yeah we’re making bank but we’re not going to pay you because fuck you!”

@denniskline995

Жыл бұрын

Citing something Swift did 8 years ago, and having her on the photo, is misleading. Not to mention all of her stuff is on Spotify now. Just to turn around and say Spotify is holding up the music industry. Click bait at its best. Because, once again, it’s the fucking label that is screwing bands. Still the same old story.

@OneStarRating

Жыл бұрын

@@denniskline995 His original thumbnail had Lars and he said he was right. Finn fucked up big time there because everyone hated Lars including himself, he knows he's a hack in a band of actual talent.

This is very educational and eye opening. I understand the music business better now. Thank you for making this video

Thank you for this Finn!

Really good video man👍

Brilliant analysis Finn - thanks for breaking down the numbers for me. It always seems the fat cats always end up winning in some way. So making music without a label is better I guess? Good songs don’t necessarily need high end production and recording I spose - some artists deliberately go for the low-fi sound. Thanks Finn!

Great video. It clarifies where the money goes. The age old story the music labels taking advantage of artists. Apple’s algorithm does suck. I rarely find a new artist through Apple Music.

as a musician in a band i 1000% agree with the last segment. we agreed to not sign any sort of record deal unless it just ridiculously in our favor but we know it's an uphill battle. bands like Attila and Bilmuri (Johnny Franck) are making it happen and that's what keeps the hope alive but yes. To anyone reading this I'm not saying stop supporting your favorite band if they're with a big label but if you care about music please support smaller independent artists and make it viable for us to navigate this brutal industry without a label nickel and diming us until we've been bled dry. great video Finn.

I collect music and books. I use spotify (and youtube) to explore and discover new music that I can then add to my physical collection, because I'm the kind of person that likes to have a CD of an album I like even if I won't use it much, because I'll probably just use spotify to listen to albums I own anyway. It's convenient. Still, I just like to have them, for display I guess, if for no other reason. So even if spotify doesn't pay the artists I listen to I still support the ones I like. I realize not everyone cares about collecting music though.

Great video!

We all need to start supporting the artists we actually care about directly by purchasing through their websites and to start using piracy for everything else again.

@SirJoelsuf1

Жыл бұрын

I agree. Paradoxically, pirating helped artists more than stuff like Spotify ever did.

Some commenters have brought up the resurgence of vinyl. There is a practical reason for it. A childhood friend of mine who performed professionally as "Jay Reatard" limited all of his independent releases to vinyl partially so that they would not be digitally reproduced. It was effective in the sense that none of his independent releases are widely available in MP3 form, and most of his early albums now sell for large sums of money on auction sites, while both of his major label releases are widely available on pirate sites. I think the resurgence of vinyl is partially a result of piracy. Limiting releases to vinyl is an effective way for artists to control the distribution of their music.

Even some big artists now decide not to sign with a record label. There are some new companies that offer tailored solutions on whatever aspect of the business the need support on.

I still use Spotify some, but ever since Snoop Dogg pulled Death Row's catalogue from the streaming services, I've gone back to buying CD's. Honestly, nothing beats the ability to actually own the music and listen to it whenever you want. Plus, you can still rip the CD's and don't have to worry about artists or labels pulling the music from streaming.

Timely video, as I just finished The Playlist on Netflix showing the start up of Spotify from various perspectives. I really enjoyed it. Ultimately I feel Spotify did some amazing things saving the dying state of the industry in the early 2000s but still had to capitulate to the ultimate power of the Record labels. They pay off 70% of their profit to the record labels and yet the artist ends up making .004cents per stream of a song. If you aren't already a famous and wealthy musician, Spotify won't get you there. But yeah pirated music wouldnt either, so it's prolly as good it gets unless you got some actual talent and a big fan base willing to buy merch direct from you. Anyway now I'll finish watching the video see if I learn something new

Even as a Spotify user myself, it’s good to know what’s going on behind the scenes

It would be cool of you to do videos about record labels themselves. Like a rise and fall type video. Would be cool to dive into ferret, sumerian and victory.

@ThePunkRockMBA

Жыл бұрын

Sadly those don’t get views! I’ve done two

interestingly today on spotify the banner add across the top (pc version) is for taylor swift's new album. i checked it out and its actually her whole discography on a playlist without an artist listed. her artist page is still blank of content. i am confusion

I feel like I remember an article saying that cd sales went up like 20% due to Napster because people would actually sample the albums then buy the cds

Those of us who are in the music industry, have known about this of course, I have been in the industry for 15 years (agent). What the tech/ streaming companies and the records companies did (without ever including the artists into this conversation) is basically plain sight robbery. Swindle of the century. Thank you for making this video and highlighting the issue.

@givenchymamajama3859

Жыл бұрын

What genres of music do you deal w/?

3:47 I was in the original 350k that Metallica banned for using Napster back in 1999. I STILL have them downloaded songs though stored on my Amazon music lol, not that it matters now.

Hopefully the indie solution starts becoming the norm. With improving technology, it becomes easier and easier for people to record music at their home, and with physical mediums being *less* in demand, there's no need for people to hire labels to distribute. And even if you did want to put out albums on CDs and the like, its certainly easier than ever to partner with an online shipping store on your own and only splitting with them if the demand is there. Sure, this all means that music is and has become oversatured in a way, but that certainly shouldn't discourage you creative souls, and hopefully the truly great music gets to shine

One of the best videos you’ve ever made 👍 trying to explain to people record labels are the problem not Spotify just generally falls on deaf ears, or I get called a conspiracy theorist (I wish I was joking)

In the late 80s and 90s, I bought hundreds of CDs at the inflated prices charged by the music industry. Since the advent of Napster and its illegal like, and then the legal streaming services, I don't even go into the music sections of any stores any more.

Subbed, everything is well resumed. This is why artists fail because they don't know the record label business!!

You have to prove that your product works. Once you are able to do that… you have the upper hand in negotiating tables. It’s really the only sensible way moving forward. I’m a huge believer in this…

@ThePunkRockMBA

Жыл бұрын

Exactly

This might be your best educational video yet. Really well explained. 100% agree on the price of spotify being WAY too cheap. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s I easily spent $50 a month on CDs. TBH, for how much I use Spotify, I don’t think I’d have any thought at all of cancelling if it was $50 a month. I think around $60-100 is when I’d start looking for other options. What Spotify really needs to do is adopt a usage based model, like what most SaaS companies utilize. They need a tiered subscription model that gives you access to X number of streams ad free per month. After you hit your max, you get ads or have to upgrade your tier. And then have an unlimited tier for people like me who have music on all day and charge us $50 a month or something.

@ZarathosDaimaoh

Жыл бұрын

I disagree , i think it would just scare customers away . You'll find that many people are hard pressed these days to pay as much as you deem fair for music . We barely came back from a period where people expected music to be entirely free via youtube . Look at Tidal , it offer better quality , and better deals all around for artists , but it's a puny tiny entity (despite being propelled by gigantic artists) compared to Spotify , KZread , Apple etc. Why ? Because people don't wanna pay the cost of most Tidal plans . Honestly the solution is unlikely , but plainly the Record labels and Spotify sucking it up , and having lesser margins (especially when they'll obviously rise the prices at some point progressively )

@inDefEE

Жыл бұрын

@@ZarathosDaimaoh not sure why what I suggested would scare anyone away. The cheapest tiered plans would cover your light users and not scare them away while those happy to pay more for much higher usage would do so. Personally I haven’t moved to Tidal because I had never heard of it until you just mentioned it. and after some quick googling appears to not have anywhere close to the amount of music as spotify

@ZarathosDaimaoh

Жыл бұрын

@@inDefEE The logic is sound , but historically i don't think that some people care for it . Some will definitively hate the idea of a new higher tier at higher price . As for Tidal , it was heavily covered in news and medias ... the library is smaller , because well , it's a flop , and became just a niche for lossless stuff . It wanted to sell a more luxurious spotify/deezer , with better sound quality , exclusive albums releases , bonuses , at a higher price ... and people did not want higher prices

@inDefEE

Жыл бұрын

@@ZarathosDaimaoh Sure, higher prices don’t work if there’s an equally as viable alternative for 1/3rd the price. If Spotify raised prices, the industry would follow and that’d be that

My complete unwillingness to do any sort of promotion has made finding an audience difficult, but the few folks who have found my stuff have come from playlists folks have made on Spotify. I would add that the Spotify featured playlists have a really abstruse process for submission, and communication about it is super weak. One thing Spotify could do to help independent artists is find easier, clearer ways to promote smaller artists through playlists, spotlights, etc.

@rhysnelson6077

Жыл бұрын

I agree mate, I have the same problem

How do the metal/alt record labels perform at this (Sumerian, Nuclear Blast, Epitaph, Seasons in the Mist etc.)? Do they pay their artists and employees a fair amount?

You did a great job breaking this down and explaining it. Eve 6 is a great case of still not understanding a contract you signed in the 90s. You wonder if they are being dishonest by painting spotify as the bad guy or they're just dumb.