A Pyramid of Inequality

Streaming Platforms Give Up Even Pretending

The pyramid of music streaming just gets more and more exaggerated – last week, striking figures were released by entertainment data company Luminate (formerly SoundScan) detailing 2023’s stats. Out of 184 million total tracks on streaming platforms, nearly 25% - 45.6 million - were not played at all. Another 61% – 113 million tracks – were streamed 1,000 times or fewer. Which means Spotify’s new royalty scheme for 2024 - which won’t account to tracks under 1,000 annual streams - leaves roughly 86% of all recordings demonetized.

What was wrong with piracy, again…?

In the picture above, the only tracks earning anything from Spotify – anything! – will be in the blue stripe near the top, and the yellow eye of providence above that which is pretty much where all the money in recorded music now resides.

This concentration of wealth is extreme. Even if your music is in the pink, so to speak, climbing toward the top 14% of all streamed tracks, you may still earn zero from Spotify. And let me tell you, up in the blue stratosphere it’s not going so great either. Gross earnings from Spotify remain an average $0.003 a stream, and there is no strategy from the company for making that go up other than grabbing what little is being paid to those further down the slope, and using that to boost our tenths of a cent.

That’s not a plan!

We need something truly different than this pyramid of inequality. There needs to be more money in the system for artists; and it needs to be distributed more fairly. The platforms are not providing solutions for the vast majority of working musicians - that is no longer a regrettable temporary situation, it is now stated policy at least for Spotify. With this latest development, they have given up on even lip service to anything else.

They have also given up on a lot of their own labor. In December, Spotify eliminated 1,500 jobs, or 17% of their staff; this on top of 800 job cuts earlier in the year, summing to a 23% reduction in workforce. These too are job losses for the music economy.

A positive, progressive change to this system benefiting more people is not going to come from the top - that is what these latest facts and figures illustrate above all. It is up to the rest of us to find a way to make streaming technology work for the majority of musicians. At UMAW, we have been developing a plan to bring more streaming income to more recording musicians, and we will be going public with details very soon. Support us when we do. And join us if you can!

Listening to: Surround, by Yoshimura Hiroshi

Cooking: with dried green herbs (chervil, tarragon, dill and chive)