The unsexy truth behind online music revenues

It's kind of crazy to see how it's turning really tough to generate fair money by selling your record. This study shows what the online music industry (in his current state) has to offer to an artist and it's not really sexy... Look at how many millions of Spotify streams you need to generate in order to get 1000 dollars...




Spotify is not gonna make people pay for the music itself
Recorded music doesn't worth that much. It's a free thing for people. Spotify, last.fm are definitely not gonna change that. The old business model of the music industry is clearly dead. And I don't even think they actually are trying to. Spotify is making people pay for a great listener experience which is different.

What's the role of the record now?
This doesn't mean people are not ready to pay, it just means they won't pay for the music itself. The remaining role of the record is just to build a fans base that will turn profitable with other business models.

MUSIC RECORD = FANS BASE ACQUISITION TOOL

Some artists do earn more money than this
Just as an example: Did dJs every tried to get their salary mainly selling records or streams of their records?
Not really, they offer their remix for free and play them in clubs, like a lot...

"Being a DJ, next to video game tester is probably the most easiest and overpaid job on the planet" James Murphy - LCD Soundsystem

By the way, this month 2 great bands, LCD Soundsystem and MGMT launched their new album on their own website, making it available for free, integrally. to everyone. This even before making it available on Spotify...