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I ditched Spotify and set up my own music stack

(leshicodes.github.io)
275 points starkparker | 3 comments | 04 Sep 25 22:47 UTC | HN request time: 0.6s | source
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cortesoft ◴[04 Sep 25 23:21 UTC] 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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ohthehugemanate ◴[05 Sep 25 07:44 UTC] No.45136005[source]▶
Why do you choose the CD era as your comparison point? Why not cassettes, or the LP decades? The industry has changed a lot and choosing a different baseline is illuminating to any discussion of "fair" compensation.

What hasn't changed is the fact that vertically integrated distribution-and-promotion with large market share has all the leverage, all the information, and all the legislative influence. In any time period where that exists, the same result plays out through different media.

That is to say, in terms of negotiating power, free market economics, and political influence the artist is not just strongly disadvantaged, but artificially so. It's not a David and Goliath, it's more like David and the Death Star.

When Roger Fischer, Adam Smith, and Jack Abramoff would all agree that one side probably needs some extra support, it's a good bet that "fair" lies so far on the other side of the scale that we don't have to worry about precision or philosophy of "fairness" to make a big improvement.

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1718627440 ◴[05 Sep 25 08:30 UTC] No.45136294[source]▶
Because CD has not been superseded by any other physical media? Nobody sells music on an USB stick or on a microSD card. If I go to buy music, it will be always CD.
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SideburnsOfDoom ◴[05 Sep 25 11:50 UTC] No.45137483[source]▶
> CD has not been superseded by any other physical media

What's a Blu-ray DVD disk then?

If there still was a mass market for music on physical media, CDs would have been superseded, either by an optical disk or some kind of SD card.

But there isn't. so it hasn't.

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1. 1718627440 ◴[05 Sep 25 13:00 UTC] No.45138019[source]▶
Where can I buy music on a Blu-ray DVD? They are simply more expensive, while nobody needs the extra space for music data. At least where I live music is only sold on CD. There are new vinyl disks being produced for a retro market, but a player for these needs significantly more space then a Compact Disc. In addition to buying a new player I would also be bound to only play music at home. Every car has a CD tray, my laptop has one, I have several players at home.
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2. SideburnsOfDoom ◴[05 Sep 25 13:05 UTC] No.45138076[source]▶
> Where can I buy music on a Blu-ray DVD

The format and equipment exists, it's called "blu ray audio"

The fact that it's not in widespread use is my point exactly: the mass market isn't there any more.

> Every car has a CD tray,

I think that will go the way of a headphone jack on a iPhone. Cars have bluetooth.

> my laptop has one,

CD players on laptops literally have gone the way of a headphone jack on a iPhone. They're rare to non-existent on new models.

> I have several players at home.

So do I - they're in a box somewhere.

You're not refuting my point at all - there's not successor to CDs, not because it's a perfect, modern medium for physical music. But just because there is no longer a mass market for music on any physical media.

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3. 1718627440 ◴[07 Sep 25 18:51 UTC] No.45161078[source]▶
> The fact that it's not in widespread use is my point exactly: the mass market isn't there any more.

Their might not be a mass market for neither, but these are not available in the same scale at all. You maybe can find blu ray audio somewhere on the internet, but I've never seen them, while the the music store has hundreds of CDs and every street musician and band sells CDs.

I honestly do not know what the selling point of a Blu-ray disk is. The form factor is exactly the same and nobody needs the capacity. The capacity of a DVD is already too large, why should anyone use a Blue-ray disk? Neither want the musicians produce and sell more than some hours of music, nor do consumers need music for days without interruption. There simply is no kind of music which takes more than a few hours.

So the only difference is that the disk is more expensive and the player is likely incompatible, so hardly a benefit.

> So do I - they're in a box somewhere.

I was only talking about players in use.