this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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Is Spotify the villain here or is the “big three”? Because it sounds like Spotify is delivering a service and deserves some profit from that.
But what are the big three doing? Seems like they are just skimming because they hold the IP rights. Are they providing any service?
Spotify is definitely not the villain here, they have created the best music streaming platform in the world. The big publishers also can't be called the villains per say, but it wasn't so nice of them to force a small startup (Spotify in it's early days) to sign contracts that will permanently force it to payout about $0.66 out of every $1 it makes.
The most popular musoc streaming service. Definitely not the best. They still don't offer lossless musoc streaming and their lossy files use an outdated encoder.
The "best music platform in the world" sure hates paying artists, tho. I know you are obsessed with labels, they pay indie artists fuck all too
Spotify picks it's price point. It's picked a price point (free) that meams artists can't get paid. And it's price point (free) means that artists can't compete either.
So yeah fuck spotify, pay artists what they are worth and having servers to download mp3s on isn't worth taking 1/3rd of the revenue. They should get less not more. Adjust their prices (maybe it shouldn't be free so artists can fucking pay rent and spotify can pay employees)
Blaming artists for wanting to pay rent and eat food is some bootlicking bullshit.
Blaming artists? What are you smoking?
I was asking if it’s Spotify which is relatively new and, as pointed out in the article MUST get this contract or die, or if the problem might be the big three that hold all the power in this negotiation.
Speaking of which. Isn’t it the big three that actually pay the artists. So how would Spotify, if they were so inclined, manage that payout? (It’s an interest idea though. I wonder what would happen if they offered a tip-the-artist button).
Spotify is not new.
Spotify already manage their payout. To labels and indies. They screw over both massively.
Unfortunately, my understanding is that at least part of the blame lies with the labels. Most labels have contracts with their artists that mean the artists make very little, if anything, off studio recordings. That means they make very little from vinyl sales, CD sales, Spotify streams, etc. If you wanna actually support an artist, you buy merch and go to live shows. My understanding is that this is how it's always been and people are barking up the wrong tree. People are bitching about Spotify when they should be bitching about labels taking a massive chunk of their money. They've only become aware of how much money they're missing out on because Spotify supposedly makes so little that they get sticker shock when they get their royalty check, but it's really not entirely Spotify's fault.
That's not saying Spotify is blameless; but if Spotify's hands are covered in shit, then the labels' hands are covered in diarrhea and vomit.
No, labels are shits. Spotify pays indie artists shit too though.
This is not a case of labels being greedy. This is a case of spotify being greedy and making a bad situation worse.
It’s not free. There are ads.
It's free. You are the product.
Free is literally why they have the market they have. Completely silly point.
You can't assume the price point changes and the market remains the same as well. It's more complicated than that. We literally have talks of people leaving Netflix every other week from the constant changes being made this year.
Yes, and they don't deserve a market if they can't pay artists to make the content. They should not exist if they can't do that.
That just leaves us nowhere to go though. We know artists aren't paid enough, but if our only answer is the one that clearly takes them out of business, then it's just sitting on a soapbox while another company comes in and does the same thing.
Either the solution has to be feasible or someone will eventually show up to ignore it.
To reemphasize, this is regarding "they have the market because they're free", it's not regarding something else like just paying the artists more, or getting a better deal with labels.
You can buy music. You can use subscription services that are less shit to artists.
I do buy music.
I know most people don't and won't though.
You can't make a solution that ignores evil and apathetic exists.