I know this is a huge business, but I can't quite figure out how anyone makes much money from it.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
I know this is a huge business, but I can't quite figure out how anyone makes much money from it.

Least of all the musicians.

The site that really supports musicians is Bandcamp.

I have two "albums" available on Spotify:

1. My Piano Album: https://open.spotify.com/album...eXWuhLQBSSHTAotvWBIQ

2. The China Tune / Ode to Prosperity album: https://open.spotify.com/album...qU8YTRTGGvRNiJca8y3g

No, I do not make much money from it. I am too lazy to figure out what the dollar figure works out to "per stream" for my music, but some other folks collected the data and done the math. For example: https://freeyourmusic.com/blog...otify-pay-per-stream ... the estimate there says *"[Spotify] pays on the average $0.004 per playback. Thus, it's necessary to reach 250 listeners to earn at least a dollar."*

In the not-so-old days, lots of people downloaded and listened to pirated MP3s for free, some people pay Apple.com or Amazon.com something like 99¢ to download a track. Does the old model works out to better or worse than "streaming 250 times for $1"? I have no idea. It's easy to conclude that the person who pays 99¢ for a track probably will not listen to that same track 250 times in his lifetime, but that does not amortize to a lot of others who pirated the track without paying.

There are huge successes for sure, but online distribution notwithstanding, as a percentage I suppose music is still not an endeavor that pays a living wage to the vast majority who play, sing, or compose music.

quote:

Originally posted by RealPlayer:

The site that really supports musicians is Bandcamp.

I looked up Bandcamp since you mentioned it. Do you know if Bandcamp just sell your music on its own site or does it also redistribute your music to some other sites? (E.g., Bandcamp does not redistribute to Spotify or Apple Music, right?)

I don't know much about Bandcamp except that the composers and performers who use it rave about it. Your payments go directly to the artists, I think. I am not "on" Bandcamp but know many of my musician friends are.

I would expect that they don't redistribute music to other sites, but I don't know the mechanics of it.

If you purchase music on Bandcamp, the artist knows you did, and I think you can even communicate back and forth.

I get that the artists don't get much, but who buys all of this data and how do they make any money off of it?

They can show me ads (a few get past adblock) but I don't click on them, or buy from them, and I doubt many others do either.

Or maybe they do?

https://musically.com/2021/04/...ribers-and-a-profit/

It says Spotify started turning a (small) profit in Q1 2021. Revenue from subscription overwhelms revenue from advertising 10 to 1.

We have a subscription (includes Hulu), and we don’t get ads.