The approximate maths: Playing an album every day for 3 years = approx 1000 plays. 1000 track plays pays about £2.50. 1000 plays of an eight track album would pay about £20. An album on Bandcamp is about £20. 🤷‍♂️ - ThreadSky

posthuman.bsky.social • 178 days ago

The approximate maths:

Playing an album every day for 3 years = approx 1000 plays.

1000 track plays pays about £2.50. 1000 plays of an eight track album would pay about £20.

An album on Bandcamp is about £20.

🤷‍♂️

Comments

xxiainxx.bsky.social•178 days ago

And then that doesn't include the 3 years of distribution fees the artist needs to pay to get their album on streaming services. *sigh*

maccanorton.bsky.social•178 days ago

you have to pay to be on streaming services???

xxiainxx.bsky.social•178 days ago

Yes. The fee depends on what services you want but I was paying $35 a year IIRC.

takato.bsky.social•178 days ago

You thought you didn't?

maccanorton.bsky.social•178 days ago

no never knew that! I'm not a musician though

takato.bsky.social•178 days ago

unfortunately, that's how it works 😢

spectralthrum.bsky.social•178 days ago

I don't make much, but I do try to buy via Bandcamp whenever possible (if I can't go physical), and have never signed up to Spotify, for the simple reason that I do not want to screw over artists. The only person who really benefits from Spotify is Daniel Ek.

bhaktibrophy.bsky.social•177 days ago

I loathe Spotify.
I had a free account to listen to a friend's album years ago and then deactivated it.

What a racket. (As everyone knows.)

xxiainxx.bsky.social•178 days ago

Same. Not had a Spotify account in like 15 years. Not sure why smaller artists even bother with it, I guess they’re all hoping to be the next TikTok craze

spectralthrum.bsky.social•178 days ago

I think that for some there is that, but for others there's a sense that this is the best way they know of getting heard by a large audience, *hopefully* translating into a record deal, merch & ticket sales etc. So, they're hoping that taking that hit is worth it in the long run. Which...

singabrokenlullaby.bsky.social•178 days ago

Being an independent musician is HELL, not that major label artists who get ripped off by contact and still owe their labels millions have it much better but holy fuck. I only use Spotify to share music on social media, although I'm thinking of switching to YouTube or something else.

shawnbryan.bsky.social•178 days ago

I’m not sure this math is correct.
- No Name by Jack White is 13 songs.
- If you stream the whole thing every day for three years that is 14,235 plays.
- Spotify pays $2.37USD per 1,000 streams.
- So that’s $33.73.
- On Bandcamp it is $10.99USD, less 10% commission - $9.49
- No annual revenue.

shawnbryan.bsky.social•178 days ago

I also bought the vinyl, but I stream it a lot. I’m sure that will add up to more than the vinyl after a while.

exzyleph.bsky.social•178 days ago

It surely depends on the artist, but in my experience albums on bandcamp tend to be in the £5-10 range, excluding taxes. Though I would have to stream an artist for 115-230 hours before they got the same £5-10 (assuming 3.5 min. tracks), and that'd probably take years since I listen to many artists

skootstheskunk.bsky.social•176 days ago

also bandcamp does a ton more to promote their artists than spotify, instead of trying to sell taco bell and car insurance they recommend similar artists and have artist recommendations, better visibility for super obscure artists etc.

alanross.bsky.social•177 days ago

Also don't forget that Spotify have scrapped small payments for small artists who don't get thousands of plays in a year. Effectively supporting Spotify is supporting pirates, who are stealing music with no comeback.

unfunk.cx•178 days ago

Also, if you stream that artist's music every day for three years, then Spotify will almost certainly remove that music from their platform, saying it's streaming fraud, in an bid to avoid paying them that tiny amount :(

martinsfp.bsky.social•178 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/martinsfp.bsky.social/post/3lckdv5swb22s

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