Complex delves into the power of (non)streaming, with the prime example of Brooklyn rapper: "6ix9ine fully leaned into the idea that in today’s era, any attention is good attention. A hate-click is still a click. He knew that getting someone to stream his song out of pure curiosity would put just as much money in his pocket as a stream from an avid fan who actually enjoys the music... To keep operating as he was, 6ix9ine desperately needed revenue from streams. And to get streams, he needed attention, whether it was positive or negative. Getting flat-out ignored was his biggest fear".

It's raining' money, halleluyah!
August 21, 2020

Hundreds of AWAL artists earn $100k a year from streaming

Independent record label and distribution company AWAL says that “hundreds” of its artists now earn more than $100k a year from streaming, and that the number of artists who reached the 6-figure mark has grown by more than 40% in the last year, Music Ally reports. The company also said that “dozens” of its artists earn more than $1m from streaming every year. In march 2018 AWAL’s parent company Kobalt said that hundreds of artists were then earning more than $50k a year. AWAL has 40,000 artist and writer clients.

Rage Against the Machine music was streamed over 11 million times in the last week, a 62% increase, caused by the renewed interest for their music amid the protests in the U.S., Billboard reports. The band’s 1992 single 'Killing in the Name' accounts for 2.4 million of those streams alone, which places the song at No. 3 on Hard Rock Digital Songs Chart and No. 21 on the Hard Rock Streaming Songs Chart. 'Bulls on Parade', meanwhile, has been streamed 1.4 million times in the last week. The band’s catalog, which features four studio albums released between 1992 and 2000, earned 11,000 equivalent album units in the June 5-11 tracking week, a boost of 24%.

The Future of Music Coalition explained in a great Twitter thread how is it possible for Bandcamp to waive its share of revenue, and still make it work for itself. A few arguments: a "niche-oriented" business model; a decision to do only one round of VC funding; a commitment to iteratively asking artists what they need. What lies behind it - "smart, idealistic music-loving people". Pitchfork investigates how much more money artists make on Bandcamp, compared to streaming services - experimental hip-hop duo 75 Dollar Bill put out a digital-only album, 'Live at Tubby’s', exclusively on Bandcamp on May 1 and made $4,200 in just two days - more than they made through streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube over the last six years.

Global recorded music industry revenues grew by 11.4% in 2019 to reach $21.5 billion, an increase of $2.2 billion in 2018, and the fifth year in a row the revenue grew. Of that total sum, $11,9 billion came from streaming music. The major record labels took 67.5% of the overall market in 2019. Artists without record labels was again the fastest-growing segment of the market, growing by 32.1% in 2019 to reach $873 million, representing 4.1% of the total market, up from 1.7% in 2015.

Homework not done, after all
February 25, 2020

"Lofi hip hop radio" - back on YouTube

The popular YouTube stream "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to", the constant live stream starring an anime girl doing her homework, was banned from YouTube over the weekend without explanation but in the meantime, the channel was restored and the chill beats returned in a brand new stream. YouTube issued an apology - "Our teams confirmed that this was a mistake on our side and your channel has now been reinstated". According to The Verge, the original "lofi" stream amassed over 218 million views, and ran for over 13,000 hours, making it one of the longest videos in YouTube history.

Speaking in a new interview, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor took aim at exploitive royalty rates - “A million streams on YouTube is 0.04 percent of a penny. On a million streams you get $400". He thinks it's bad business for everyone, including the companies: "The streaming services are not willing to pay the talents who write the songs and makes the music and yet they are sitting on billions of dollars. They are buying whole blocks of buildings and then taking over floors in there and yet they don’t want to pay the people who made the money for them".

154 million albums were either streamed, bought or downloaded the UK last year, the largest amount since 2006, when the figure stood at 161.4 million. The majority of sales (three quarters) were made through streaming - fans streamed 114 billion songs last year, a new record (1,000 streams generate one "sale"). Just three years ago, […]

Journalist and publicist has two points in his article: streaming is killing the idea of a mainstream, and second - even the astronomically famous have had to resort to ruses to commandeer public attention. On the bright side - "in this flourishing post-geographical world of 'local' cultures not tied to location, small is bountiful and […]

Chance the Rapper is the first artist in the SoundCloud Premier program to earn a billion streams. His first music dropped on the platform eight years ago, he released his album 'Coloring Book' on SoundCloud for free, and his most recent album 'The Big Day' was released via the streaming service as well. All Hip Hop...

Heavy metal topped all other genres in 2018 in increased streams and downloads in 2018 from the previous year, according to music distribution company TuneCore. Streams and downloads at Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, and more than 150 other music streaming and download services, that are home to 250,000 artists, totaled 199.3 billion in 2018, an […]

Streaming services are becoming distributors and, in some cases, record labels. Record labels are becoming streaming services and, in some cases, talent management companies. Talent management companies are becoming record labels, while distributors are having a go at becoming managers - Rolling Stone analyses what's going on in today's music business.

British artists, blockbuster film soundtracks, vibrant streaming growth & resilient demand for physical formats combine to fuel a near 6% rise in music consumption in 2018 – the fourth year of growth in a row. A total of 142.9 million albums or their equivalent were either streamed, purchased on physical format, and/or downloaded over the […]