Should Spotify and Apple become record labels and be done with it?
Here’s an interesting proposal: Have Spotify and Apple morph from being streaming music services–i.e. delivery systems–into full-blown record labels, actual creators of musical content. Could this be the best route for artists? CNBC thinks so.
Streaming services that we all use like Spotify and Apple Music offer great convenience to fans. But artists are getting a raw deal. The simple truth is musicians need to be paid more for their content. And if these services started to act more like record labels, they could afford to do just that.
These days, millions of listeners flock to streaming services to enjoy music that is either advertisement-supported or subscription based. Americans listened to an average of 32 hours per week in 2017, and that number is only rising.
But musicians still aren’t getting a fair shake. Here’s the math: Spotify pays about $0.006 to $0.0084 per stream to the holder of music rights. And the “holder” can be split among the record label, producers, artists, and songwriters. In short, streaming is a volume game.
