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275 points starkparker | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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cortesoft ◴[] No.45133347[source]
So the author talks about how little money per stream artists make... but how much SHOULD they be making? What is fair compensation for writing a song?

In the old days, artists would join a label and put out an album. The artist would earn about 10% of sales or so (varies of course, but on average). So a $15 CD would earn an artist $1.50.

The article lists the 'price per stream' as about $0.005. So it would take about 300 streams of a song to earn the same amount as selling a CD used to make.

I feel like that isn't categorically less money than artists used to make per song listen? There are many albums I own that I have listened to way more than 30 times, which is what it would take for a 10 song album to get 300 song 'streams'

Is that a fair compensation? Why or why not?

I think artists should be able to earn money from creating music, but I don't know how we decide how much they actually deserve if we aren't just going based on the price the market sets.

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newsclues ◴[] No.45133369[source]
Does the record company make more money than the artist? That’s unfair to me.

The people making the art, should be paid the most.

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1. browningstreet ◴[] No.45133442[source]
It seems like no one understands what a record deal is. Or an advance. Or publishing rights.

No one needs to sign a record deal. Or take an advance (which is a loan).

It’s like VC money. There are plenty of threads here which recommend not taking VC money and bootstrapping instead.

And yes, some artists self fund, self publish and self-upload. I’m not defending Spotify or streaming rates, just saying platitudes don’t seem sufficiently nuanced or informed.

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2. goosejuice ◴[] No.45134983[source]
I agree. The networking, distribution and expertise is a huge leg up in most cases. Not everyone can vulfpeck.