Brooding ?
Brooding ?
So the other day I was pondering, or as the wife calls it, “brooding”, but I digress (wow, that was fast!), back to pondering. I had just finished adding the Jimmie Vaughan Trio Live at C-Boys to my Amazon music playlist when I got to thinking, how does Jimmie benefit (get paid) when myself or someone adds them to their playlists. This could be Spotify, Pandora, Apple, Amazon any of those services. Hmmmm…….. So what am I supposed to do? Where does one go for answers to life’s perplexing problems? As a wise man once said, “Google is your friend”. So off to Google, a couple of quick searches later and I land on the PlanetaryGroup.com website. The Planetary Group is a boutique music marketing company offering indie publicity, social media, non-commercial and college radio promotion and consulting. At least that what their website says. Anyhow, this is just one site, but needless to say I was shocked, here’s a couple of quotes:
“As long as the song is played for thirty seconds, Spotify counts it as a stream and a per stream royalty is added to your grand total, to be paid out later”
“As of 2019, Spotify reported that they pay between $0.00331 and $0.00437 per stream to artists for their songs”
“With the average per-stream rate going at roughly $0.0038, 1000 streams pays around $3.80.”
“To put it in perspective, an artist would need roughly 400,000 streams to earn an amount comparable to the average monthly minimum wage.”
WHAT ?!? HUH? How can the artists afford lunch, let alone all the trappings to go with being a music star? This brings new meaning to the term “starving artist”.
Before I started with the music streaming service, I would do a once a month raid on the local ½ off book establishments around the area. I could usually find a couple of interesting blues Cd. I thought well at least I bought the Cd, not thinking that this is a used Cd, therefore the royalty has already been paid and here I am again feeling guilty for listening to free music. (that I paid the book store for)
So, what is the answer? No idea. But going to see a live band at least you’ll feel like you’re paying your share. Back in ye olden days, when I was 18-21, there was a club with a live band on every corner, then they all seemed to disappear. Thank heavens that live music clubs/bars are back in business. Well other than that pesky Covid nonsense that shut the world down a couple years back. Live music appears to be back.
In the meantime, continue to stream your music, you are contributing to the artists albeit in a small way, at least it’s something. Go see an artist at a local bar, pay the sometime ridiculous cover charge, grab a frosty mug or a frozen awesome and enjoy the band. Does the band have a merch table? By all means go over and check it out, buy a t-shirt, or cd, your money is going directly to the band, no middle man.
And for crying out loud, drop a ten spot in the band’s tip bucket. Now kick back and really enjoy the band knowing you’ve done your part, and if you spot an old guy with a grey pony tail scribbling in a notebook, say hi, it’s probably me.
Until we meet again, go see some live music, let us know who you saw.
Make a JoyFul Noise
“Mr Dave” Keltner