Wired
British Conservative lawmaker Julian Knight begins investigating the actual state of payments to artists for music streaming services. We know that the average payment to Apple Music artists is about 0.01 yen per song played.
Are talented and lesser-known artists sacrificed?
Music streaming services are a major source of revenue for the music industry, with total sales of £ 1 billion last year. However, the current situation is that many artists are saying that they are not getting enough payment.
“Market growth should not come at the expense of talented, low-profile artists,” said Conservative Knight, chairman of the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports. We will start investigating whether the payment is being made properly in November.
Tasmin Little, a classical musician and also awarded the Order of the British Empire, paid £ 12.34 for 5-6 million plays (6 months) on music streaming services earlier this year. It is revealed on social media that it was.
It was £ 12.34 for 6 months, in other words for around 5-6 million streams https://t.co/VFjJJ8jq53
— Tasmin Little OBE (@tasminlittle) May 18, 2020
In the case of Little, her sound source, which was recorded before the digital rights arose, was related to being placed in a special category in the artist contract, and the label decided to pay a low amount. The fact was later discovered.
Pay 100 yen for 10,000 plays
Still, the BBC says it still pays very little to lesser-known artists. According to a BBC survey, the payment amount per streaming service is as follows per playback.
- Apple Music: £ 0.0059
- Spotify: 0.002-0.038 pounds (about 0.27-5.17 yen)
- YouTube: £ 0.00052 (about 0.071 yen)
The above payments are divided into labels, composers, and artists, and the average payment to artists is 13%, so in the case of Apple Music, the artist is paid £ 0.0000988 for each playback. It will be calculated as 0.01 yen). In other words, it means that you need to play 10,000 times to earn 100 yen.
It seems that the payment status of streaming services needs to be reviewed due to the restrictions on live activities due to the corona virus and the decrease in income sources for artists.
Surveys show that Spotify and Apple Music should pay more to artists, with 65% of users willing to pay higher subscription fees for that.
Source: BBC via 9to5Mac
(lexi)
Source: iPhone Mania