On the best opaque evidence available, for every 5000 streams, Spotify pays an artist around $30 \u2014 although less than 1000 spins a month gets those losers zero. Amazon is around the same, Deezer about $50, Apple Music a relative bonanza at $77.<\/p>\n
Tidal nudges the $100 mark if you spring for its hi-fi tier and Qobuz, the boutique French audiophile\u2019s darling, pays a still-not-exactly-whopping $145. YouTube Music? A mortifying $5.50 for 5000 streams. That\u2019s three McNuggets, so here\u2019s hoping the rest of the band isn\u2019t hungry.<\/p>\n Melbourne indie outfit Camp Cope, who are breaking up but will\u00a0deliver their farewell album, Live at the Sydney Opera House as vinyl later this month. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Genna Alexopoulos<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The fine print adds brain injury to insult: different subscription tiers, geography, advertising rates, sound quality options, algorithm promotion opt-ins and more buffet the numbers like an accountant\u2019s toupee in a gale, but the bottom line is clear: the infinite jukebox spins for shareholders. Musicians pocket bus fare.<\/p>\n Some superstars have invested in their own lifeboats. James Blake\u2019s Vault subscription service<\/a> \u2014 $7.50 a month for unreleased tracks \u2014 was hailed as a bold alternative 18 months ago<\/a>, but who\u2019s ready to fork out $90 a year for the offcuts of every artist on their playlist?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n None of this is remotely surprising to Sarah Thompson, who works with artists on indie label Poison City Records and, until recently, played drums with Melbourne rock outfit Camp Cope.<\/p>\n Loading<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI worked in record stores, then labels, so I saw in real time how bleak the future was going to be,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was obvious from the start that streaming wasn\u2019t going to do anything good for anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Camp Cope\u2019s farewell album, Live at the Sydney Opera House<\/em>, arrives on October 17 as a one-off vinyl pressing, and digitally only on the platform most indie acts cite as the least-worst online option: Bandcamp.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bandcamp is not really streaming. It\u2019s more like a digital record store where you name your price and 82 per cent of it goes straight to the artist. Once a month, Bandcamp Friday<\/a> waives its cut entirely which, in a world of fractions of cents, can feel like Christmas.<\/p>\n The gulf between indie flexibility and the major label straitjacket is growing more stark. Bandcamp is great for smaller players, but Thompson gets why an act like Massive Attack can\u2019t just ditch their 7.9 million streamers and reposition their catalogue overnight.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a perfect world, every artist would just leave Spotify,\u201d she says. \u201cBut why is the onus once again put on artists? We already don\u2019t have anything. Get angry at Spotify, not at musicians. We\u2019re artists. They\u2019re a multibillion-dollar corporation run by advertisers and tech guys.\u201d<\/p>\n At the far organic end of that spectrum, if you squint hard enough, sits a tiny glimmer of light. Formidable Vegetable, a \u201cpermaculture electro-swing outfit\u201d from regional Western Australia looks, from the burning deck of the modern music business, like the green shoots of a new world.<\/p>\n \u2018Permaculture electro-swing outfit\u2019 Formidable Vegetable have taken aim at Spotify in one of their songs. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Ema Kneblova<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Their song Spotify (Where Music Goes to Die<\/em>) has had \u201cbugger all streams, funnily enough,\u201d says mainstay Charlie Mgee, but it\u2019s clocked up 1.5 million Instagram<\/a> views since August, and proved a crowd favourite on their recent fifth return to the Glastonbury Festival and other stops around Europe.<\/p>\n Loading<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI have friends who are signed to majors who have thanked us for saying this because they\u2019re on contracts that require them to be on Spotify,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n But \u201ca lot of bands are using their platforms to advocate for what they believe in,\u201d he adds, citing King Gizzard, Stella Donnelly, Lime Cordiale and Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. \u201cWe\u2019re tired of being co-opted into a world-destroying machine. Bring back the punks!\u201d<\/p>\n Mgee acknowledges that stadiums and concert halls may well remain beyond their grasp. And he\u2019s fine with it. \u201cOurs is a grassroots, mycelial approach to music, but we\u2019ve survived and thrived for 12 years so it\u2019s a model that\u2019s really worth exploring for anyone the industry is not working for.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That arguably describes a greater percentage of musicians today than at any other time in living memory. Thompson knows there\u2019s no easy fix, but she believes turning the tide is all about consumer education.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no HR department for musicians. No worldwide union. To collect every artist on Earth in a mass exodus [from streaming] would be ideal, but it\u2019s going to be very difficult. What\u2019s more beneficial is to re-educate people on how it all works, and how to financially support the artists they like.\u201d<\/p>\n Turns out that\u2019s a lot easier that cancelling your streaming subscription.<\/p>\n \u201cBuy the T-shirt. Buy the album. Go to the show.\u201d<\/p>\n Must-see movies, interviews and all the latest from the world of film delivered to your inbox. Sign up for our Screening Room newsletter.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhat does that leave us?<\/h3>\n
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