Comment on Ethical alternatives to Spotify
ubergeek@lemmy.today 10 hours agoIts standard across the industry. Artists get paid very little in per unit sales of media.
The bulk of money they earn comes from tours (which they cover the bill for, and cut some of the profits from), and merch (which they take the largest cut from).
Mihies@programming.dev 10 hours ago
That’s the standard, yes. And the solution is to pirate their music instead? But seriously, why do they even bother with labels then? Don’t get me wrong, I’d like for them to be better paid and for streaming services to allocate bigger cut to them, however, piracy doesn’t help with this at all. Usually it’s just an average Joe excuse to not pay anything at all.
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 3 hours ago
Almost all of my collection was pirated in college (it didn’t help that someone stole my 96 CD binder from my car). Once I was making OK money and paid downloads became a thing, I slowly rectified that. It was hard to find electronic music any other way in the '90s.
Deyis@beehaw.org 4 hours ago
Labels provide the upfront capital for things like recording studios, distribution (traditionally, less so nowadays when there’s not a physical product to distribute), publicity, marketing, live shows, etc in exchange for a percentage and usually with a contract that the artist will make X many albums with them.
Although things are slowly changing, you are unlikely to be doing huge tours at sold out venues and getting your songs played on the radio unless you have the substantial money to do so in the first place.
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 3 hours ago
Wait … people still listen to the radio?
“Here’s a shitload of ads and someone in Cincinnati choosing what hundreds of stations play.”
Deyis@beehaw.org 2 hours ago
Depends on where you live, I suppose. Where I am, you can’t have someone hook up their phone to a bluetooth speaking to play the world’s most tame Spotify playlist but they will absolutely have the radio on at all times.