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 feel like you’re paying your share. I quit drinking (9/1/17) so I don’t frequent bars anymore, but I have found a couple of places to see live music, ah happiness, but no!, that can’t be! Covid-19 shuts the world down and I am back to square one. Bastidges!
As Corona subsides eventually, and life gets sorta back to normal(?). I will strive to see more live bands. I will also be publishing venue calendars of groups you need to see and experience, I will try my best not to complain (too much) about high cover charges, although we’ll see.
When all this craziness finally crawls back to the Hell it came from, hold your head up, grab a friend and go see a show. And while you’re there, if the band is selling merch, buy a Cd, at least you’ll know they are definitely getting paid. Now where was I?, Oh yeah, brooding, I mean, ah er, ah pondering.