A Singer-Songwriter's Opinion On the Reality of Streaming in 2025
Today I release another new single, “The World”, produced at Plaid Dog Studios in Boston, MA. Every time I have a chance to give folks access to new music or videos i’m filled with joy and curiosity about how it will be received. But speaking to my sister this past weekend made me realize a lie floating around in people’s mind.
But before I get to today’s topic, the cover thumbnail photo is of DomJess of DomJess and the Vibe. Her band is fantastic and she’s super cute. Tell her I sent ya!
My new single, The World, available everywhere (for better or worse) for streaming. The World
First: streaming is a raw deal for…. maybe 90 to 95 percent of the artists that have their music available for streaming. 5 to 10 percent may even be generous. It’s worse than unfair. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say it’s closer to theft. As an independent artist, if someone buys my album for $30 it would take 10,000 streams to make that same amount of money. Did you catch that? And sadly, this is a moving target because Spotify is so opaque with what they pay independent artists and musicians. Looking at my receipts, one stream is equal to about $0.003. One more time: I don’t get paid a penny for a stream. Not a half a penny. Three tenths. Of a penny.
A well-intentioned person might offer “Well, being on Spotify certainly gives you a chance at getting discovered!” It used to be that if you could get enough initial streams it was possible to get on Spotify’s editorial playlists that have a large following and increase your listenership. But monetizing, let alone CAPTURING those people is next to impossible. My definition of capturing is being able to contact a fan outside of a service. Via email, mail, phone or text. Artists have access to NONE of these things through Spotify’s “Spotify for Artists” service which is a separate portal for artists to be able to manage their spotify catalog and marketing.
Using “Spotify for Artists” is tough. It offers very few analytic tools for musicians. I can see what city someone streams from, and their gender, approximate age but all that is randomized. I could have 10,000 followers, but if they’re not actively streaming my stuff I have zero ways of finding out about them or, more importantly, contacting them. Using this feature it feels like Spotify makes things deliberately opaque.
It feels like fear.
It feels like Spotify is afraid of artists monetizing people that come to Spotify’s platform for the artists product. I can’t send my followers a message or contact them about a tour or even learn what other things interest them. If Youtube offers me 100 points of data, with Spotify, generously, I have five. With YouTube I have usernames, locations, where in the song they stopped listening, what parts they skipped to, or repeated, when they decided to click share… I could go on. I get NONE of that with Spotify. Spotify has that data. They keep it for themselves and their advertisers.
Spotify should be afraid. The number of artists lives it enriches is hopefully non-zero. But after learning all these things, what is Spotify offering to artists? Exposure? No, play listing is dead: TikTok and other social media outlets have seen to this. Offering a community of collaboration with other artists or creators or, heck, even fans? No, Spotify keeps all that content tightly guarded from artists. Robust audience anyalitcs tools to help them create more art that serves an ever widening audience? Again: no.
A box to check on a single or album release list?
Yes.
With affection,
Rev