Fair Pay
New Analysis Exposes Vast Gap Between Haves and Have Nots of the Streaming Economy
For artists participating in the Big Tech-driven streaming economies of Apple Music, Spotify, and beyond, it’s no secret that there’s a vast chasm between the haves and the have nots. But how large is that gulf really? A new Rolling Stone piece published by Tim Ingham, founder of Music Business Worldwide, sought to answer that question by piecing together nuggets of data released by Spotify’s own volition. Unfortunately, what unfolded was the revelation of deep inequality within an increasingly crowded digital landscape. It all starts from one sobering big picture statistic. Nearly 57,000 artists on Spotify are vying for their share of around $4.5 billion, which represents 90% of the royalties Spotify pays annually. According to Spotify’s statistics outl...
