Does Anybody Know How An Artist Gets Paid From Record Sales/Streaming?

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5 Grand

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Mar 14, 2018
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I understand that nowadays a physical CD is considered uncommon. People subscribe to streaming services (Tidal, Spotify, iTunes, etc.) and stream music onto your computer. In theory you can't burn the CD onto a disc.

But if you're paying $10 per month for streaming, how does that equate to the artist, or the record label getting paid?

I also understand that the real money is in touring. A popular artist can get in between $10,000-$100,000 per show. But that doesn't have anything to do with record sales.

Are albums just a promotional tool nowadays? Does the artist make money by selling the CD at shows?

I can understand how the streaming sites make their money, but how does the artist get paid from their album?
 
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Achewon87 said:
www.digitalmusicnews.com

How Much Artists Make Per Stream on Spotify, Apple Music & More

How much do artists make per stream? Here's a comprehensive breakdown of what streaming music services pay artists and rights owners.
www.digitalmusicnews.com www.digitalmusicnews.com
Click to expand...


OK, so from what I gather, you'd have to have your song on every streaming site. And if you got approximately 50,000 streams per site you'd be able to live off streaming... while your song/album is hot.

146741


So the next question is; Can you put your music on every site or are the streaming sites exclusive?

How difficult is it to get your music on a streaming site? Seems like you'd just have to send an mp3 and fill out some paperwork.


It still seems that you'd make more money having a merchandise table at your shows where you sell the CD for $20 (also T-shirts, hats, etc.)
 
5 Grand said:
OK, so from what I gather, you'd have to have your song on every streaming site. And if you got approximately 50,000 streams per site you'd be able to live off streaming... while your song/album is hot.

View attachment 146741


So the next question is; Can you put your music on every site or are the streaming sites exclusive?

How difficult is it to get your music on a streaming site? Seems like you'd just have to send an mp3 and fill out some paperwork.


It still seems that you'd make more money having a merchandise table at your shows where you sell the CD for $20 (also T-shirts, hats, etc.)
Click to expand...

You still need a record deal or distribution deal to get your music on Spotify, I'm guessing it's probably the same on other streaming platforms...

artists.spotify.com

Your Music – Guide – Spotify for Artists

Get more out of Spotify with tools & tips for artists and their teams.
artists.spotify.com artists.spotify.com
 
I dont think anybody really knows. Its alotta money floating out there somewhere.. I can read all the articles in the world and it still doesnt make sense to me.. I wanna know exactly how much an actual stream is worth. I think its all bullshit. And then how are the stream payouts divided btw the artists, labels, and all that.
 
DOPE33 said:
I dont think anybody really knows. Its alotta money floating out there somewhere.. I can read all the articles in the world and it still doesnt make sense to me.. I wanna know exactly how much an actual stream is worth. I think its all bullshit. And then how are the stream payouts divided btw the artists, labels, and all that.
Click to expand...
When streaming started taking off, record labels bought large shares of the streaming companies. They purposely hide how much they make from ads, so they can say theres no money in streaming. I think 50cent hit the nail on the head when he commented on this years ago. He said something to the effect that all these big artist complaining they get millions of streams but only make a few cents, are signed to big labels.
This feels like nothing more than them taking all the money from streaming, handing the artist crumbs, then them claiming theres no money in streaming, thats why they cant pay them.
 
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DOPE33 said:
I dont think anybody really knows. Its alotta money floating out there somewhere.. I can read all the articles in the world and it still doesnt make sense to me.. I wanna know exactly how much an actual stream is worth. I think its all bullshit. And then how are the stream payouts divided btw the artists, labels, and all that.
Click to expand...
LurkerSix said:
When streaming started taking off, record labels bought large shares of the streaming companies. They purposely hide how much they make from ads, so they can say theres no money in streaming. I think 50cent hit the nail on the head when he commented on this years ago. He said something to the effect that all these big artist complaining they get millions of streams but only make a few cents, are signed to big labels.
This feels like nothing more than them taking all the money from streaming, handing the artist crumbs, then them claiming theres no money in streaming, thats why they cant pay them.
Click to expand...


Yeah, streaming doesn't make any sense to me.

I think the best way to do it is what Prince did; He had somebody on the clock 24/7 checking to see if any of his music was online. If he found any of his music online he shut it down. Before Prince died you couldn't download any of his music and it wasn't on Youtube. Now you can download his music, but you couldn't while he was alive.

If you can keep your music off the internet, or, if you can regulate which songs are on the internet (like a lead single with a video) then you could sell the hardcopy of the CD on Amazon for $20. But you'd need a staff online 24/7 to make sure people aren't sharing your music for free.

Does that make any sense?

The reason why I'm asking is that I'm almost finished with a project and I don't know the first thing about selling music in the streaming age.
 
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5 Grand said:
OK, so from what I gather, you'd have to have your song on every streaming site. And if you got approximately 50,000 streams per site you'd be able to live off streaming... while your song/album is hot.

View attachment 146741


So the next question is; Can you put your music on every site or are the streaming sites exclusive?

How difficult is it to get your music on a streaming site? Seems like you'd just have to send an mp3 and fill out some paperwork.


It still seems that you'd make more money having a merchandise table at your shows where you sell the CD for $20 (also T-shirts, hats, etc.)
Click to expand...

Not sure how accurate those numbers are because I have seen a lot of lists claiming they know the royalty rates

It's not hard to put music on the sites.You need a digital distributor

I use CD Baby,but there's also Tunecore and others

CD Baby is 1 time rate.You can pay less than $200,which includes them giving you a barcode and sending it to most major streaming sites

Tunecore has yearly fees or something.I forgot the details,but it costs more,but has a few more options

Of course selling merch is a way to make money,but you still need a heavy buzz to profit off that

Just depends on what level the artist is on.

Getting paid shows isn't an east task.
 
5 Grand said:
OK, so from what I gather, you'd have to have your song on every streaming site. And if you got approximately 50,000 streams per site you'd be able to live off streaming... while your song/album is hot.

View attachment 146741


So the next question is; Can you put your music on every site or are the streaming sites exclusive?

How difficult is it to get your music on a streaming site? Seems like you'd just have to send an mp3 and fill out some paperwork.


It still seems that you'd make more money having a merchandise table at your shows where you sell the CD for $20 (also T-shirts, hats, etc.)
Click to expand...

I'm debating on doing this right now with my old catalog. I know I'm not gonna get much off of it, but throwing my old shit up on streaming sites and also re-adding it to office music streaming platforms might surprise me every now and them with a few dollars in my pocket.

How hard is it? Shit, I still haven't figured it out though I think Spotify has a service that would allow artists to upload their unreleased music.
 
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So wait!

146799


^^^ If that's how much the streaming sites pay, I'm assuming all of that money goes to the record label, who then pays the artist a royalty.

So if an artist signed to a (major) label has his album on all of the streaming sites and gets, say, 50,000 streams per site (which is a high estimate) or 30,000 streams from the top 3 sites (low estimate) the label gets paid and the artist gets what, 10%?


Seems to me that the only way you're gonna get a lot of streams is if you have a record label marketing, advertising and promoting you. Seems like an independent artist doesn't stand a chance. Or, does the independent artist have a better chance now because it's an even playing field?

An independent artist isn't really going to pop off unless he has a massive internet presence and radio play, which is impossible without a staff of people.
 
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5 Grand said:
So wait!

View attachment 146799


^^^ If that's how much the streaming sites pay, I'm assuming all of that money goes to the record label, who then pays the artist a royalty.

So if an artist signed to a (major) label has his album on all of the streaming sites and gets, say, 50,000 streams per site (which is a high estimate) or 30,000 streams from the top 3 sites (low estimate) the label gets paid and the artist gets what, 10%?


Seems to me that the only way you're gonna get a lot of streams is if you have a record label marketing, advertising and promoting you. Seems like an independent artist doesn't stand a chance. Or, does the independent artist have a better chance now because it's an even playing field?

An independent artist isn't really going to pop off unless he has a massive internet presence and radio play, which is impossible without a staff of people.
Click to expand...

See, that's the biggest unanswered question. Does the artist get the money directly? Does the label get it? How does publishing work with streams? So on and so forth.

My assumption is that you're really going to have to have some sort of machine behind you to drive people to your music on every platform you have it available on. For "hot" artist, that's not much of an issue 'cause people are checking for you. But a relative unknown? Sheeeeeeeeeeit. It's gonna be an uphill battle to get streams even with a team behind you. You would likely spend more money on advertising and marketing than you'll get back with streams. That's not to say there aren't guerrilla tactics you can take, but you've got to be ready to spend at least a little money to drive traffic to you.
 
Achewon87 said:
You still need a record deal or distribution deal to get your music on Spotify, I'm guessing it's probably the same on other streaming platforms...

artists.spotify.com

Your Music – Guide – Spotify for Artists

Get more out of Spotify with tools & tips for artists and their teams.
artists.spotify.com artists.spotify.com
Click to expand...
Nah man I know a lot of people with their music on there.

My bro got music on there. Don't have no type of deal.
 
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