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Just 7500 artists make $100K or more a year on Spotify worldwide

7500 artists earn $100,000 or more a year on Spotify, the streamer announced yesterday, despite being available in 93 markets worldwide.  The last time that Spotify shared how many musicians have music on the platform it was 3 million. Soundcloud claims 25 million creators. Even using the old 3 million stat, that means that just .0025% of the musicians and groups on Spotify earn $100,000 a year or more.

DIY musicians released 9.5M tracks last year, 8X more than major labels

D.I.Y. musicians released more than 9.5 million tracks globally in 2020, a number more than 8 times the 1.1 million tracks released by the major labels.  “As lockdown took hold, major labels released 1.2M songs in 2020; DIY artists released a staggering 9.5m. That’s an 8 to 1 ratio of artists,” wrote former Spotify chief economist Will Page in a new Financial Times piece.  As Music Ally pointed out, those numbers don’t even include independent label output.

“[Everyone] should be watching this industry as a living demonstration of what happens when barriers to entry fall,” continued Page. “The pie definitely grows, but the number of creators wanting a piece of it grows even faster.”

Black Box Invasion: The Implications of The MLC’s $424 Million Black Box

he Circular Awards Ceremony has begun anew and the corporate media wants someone to adore, dang it! Cue “It’s a Pleasure Being Sad.”   The MLC received $424 million of “inception to date black box” as required by the statute enacted October 18, 2019. It didn’t just happen by accident that most DSPs paid the money around February 15, 2021–this was the statutory deadline the lobbyists wrote into the bill, or who Senate staff called “the parties.” You, you see, were not a party and you, you see, had no say in how your money was divided up. So the MLC has known about this deadline for years.

5 tips to increase views on your music livestreams

Our only lifeline to live music amidst the pandemic, livestreams aren’t going anywhere, and now that most artists have had time to iron out the kinks, we’re looking at few tips on how to get more views for your next virtual performance.  Livestreams have served as a light in the darkness and a much needed remedy for our live show addictions this past year. With COVID-19 restrictions still underway all over the world, livestreams have only gotten better as time goes on. We’ve published multiple articles to help you improve your streams, and we hoped they’ve helped your efforts so far! If you’re interested in some additional tips and tricks, here are 5 tips for getting more views on your livestreams.

10 things to do now to leverage your growth as a musician

As an artist, the way in which you market yourself and your music is much the same way as you would any product or service, in that there are key actions you can take to leverage your growth. Here, we break down what some of these are.  Leveraging your growth as an artist is a continuous process. In fact, it can be very easy to follow your path in music without pausing to actively review where the potential for additional growth lies. The way in which you might market yourself as an artist is ultimately similar to the approach you would take to market any product in that there are key actions you can take to boost awareness, discovery, exploration, purchase, retention and advocacy. Here are 10 things you can do now to leverage your growth as an artist.

Does Your Song Have a Compelling Intro?

If the first 10 seconds is the most important part of the song, why not fill it with something solid? In addition to a repeating riff, a good intro can be an extract from a bridge or chorus, or even something culled from a different track altogether.  The irresistible riff.  However, don’t start your tune with anything less than a potent idea (unless you want it to quickly disappear like a first bad pitch). Nor should you ruin a clever intro with endless repetition—make your statement and then get on with the song.

Rupert Neve Changed Audio Recording Forever

Rupert Neve, the pioneering designer of audio recording equipment, whose creations play a fundamental role in the modern recorded music industry, died on February 12th at his home in Wimberley, Texas. He was 94. According to the company, Neve died due to non-Covid pneumonia and heart failure.

The Music Industry Is Already Petitioning the DOJ’s ASCAP/BMI Consent Decree Ruling — And Retailers, Radio, and Tech Aren’t Happy About It

Less than one month ago, the Department of Justice (DOJ) refused to change the 80-year-old BMI and ASCAP consent decrees. The music industry is already petitioning the ruling, however, and retailers, radio, and tech companies aren’t happy about the prompt response.  Worth noting is that the latter inquiry also failed to produce changes to the consent decrees, which dictate the pricing and other operational specifics for performance rights organizations (PROs). BMI and ASCAP have long opposed the measures (in a joint statement, they called on the DOJ to replace them “with newly formed decrees that would protect all parties”), but Delrahim specified that “many licensees expressed the view that the decrees are largely working.”

Tax write-offs musicians should take advantage of

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Tax season, of course, and for working musicians, this means an opportunity to write off any music-related expenses you might have incurred over the fiscal year, and keep a bit more of that hard-earned money.  It’s tax season, and if you’re a working musician, don’t forget to write off all of your music-related expenses so you can lower your taxes and keep more of the money you earned.  The minute you set out to make money with music, you’ve crossed the line from a music hobby to a music business. This means you need to adopt business thinking, strategies, and techniques. It also means the government sees you as a business as well, which is why we want to remind you of one benefit of being a legitimate business: keeping more income by taking tax write-offs.

What musicians should learn from entrepreneurs

In this piece, David Andrew Wiebe explains why artists need to recognize that they themselves are running a small business, and how the rules of entrepreneurship can help guide them to success.

Can Artists Really Learn Anything from Entrepreneurs?  The truth is, artists can’t learn anything from entrepreneurs… Why? They are entrepreneurs. A lot of them just haven’t recognized themselves as such. However, I’ve been exploring the connection between music and entrepreneurship for nine long years. Whether you call it “musicpreneurship”, “artist entrepreneurship”, “music entrepreneurship”, or otherwise, we’re fundamentally talking about the same thing.

MLC Has $424M In Unmatched Streaming Royalties To Pay Out

The Mechanical Licensing Collective has received $424 million in accrued unmatched royalties from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Google, and other digital service providers.  $152 million of The $424 million collected by the MLC comes just from Spotify. But interestingly, a larger amount – $163 million – comes from Apple Music, which has far fewer users than Spotify. 20 DSPs (see below) have transferred accrued historical unmatched royalties to The MLC as required in order for them to seek the MMA’s limitation on liability for past infringement. 

Cox Communications Officially Appeals Its $1 Billion Copyright Infringement Verdict

Cox Communications has officially appealed the $1 billion copyright infringement verdict that a jury levied against it in December of 2019.  Cox promptly pushed back against the allegations, but as mentioned, a jury in late 2019 found the Atlanta-based company liable for both vicarious and contributory infringement on 10,017 works. More pressingly, said jury attached a $99,830.29 fee to each of the alleged infringements, for total (rounded-down) damages of $1 billion.

Every Dollar Earned by Music Biz Generates Another 50 Cents for US Economy