Weird Al and Spotify Wrapped amplify uncomfortable truths about pay | Music News

American-based music industry trade union United Musicians & Allied Workers has responded to the elaborate marketing campaign that is Spotify Wrapped with a reminder of Spotify’s payment inequity. “One stat you won’t find in your Spotify Wrapped is how much artists are paid for all that listening on the platform,” UMAW said in a post on social media.

The union revealed that, due to a lack of regulation on streaming, the maximum amount artists can hope to earn from Spotify is $US0.003 per stream. This figure is set to drop even further in 2024. “In 2024, Spotify will stop paying anything AT ALL for 2/3 of the tracks on the platform,” wrote UMAW.

Spotify recently announced that a “Spotify htrack would need to hit a minimum threshold of 1000 plays a year before any money would be paid out. Spotify spun this change as a way to prevent payments from getting lost in the system. osts well over 100 million tracks,” they said. “Tens of millions of them have been streamed between 1 and 1,000 times over the past year and, on average, those tracks generated $0.03 per month.”

Spotify continued, “Because labels and distributors require a minimum amount to withdraw (usually $2-$50 per withdrawal), and banks charge a fee for the transaction (usually $1-$20 per withdrawal), this money often doesn’t reach the uploaders. And these small payments are often forgotten about.”

Musical comic “Weird Al” Yankovic is laughing all the way to the bank, where he’ll be depositing the $12 Spotify paid him for racking up 80 million streams in 2023.

To celebrate the streaming service’s annual “wrapped” campaign that kicked off today, Weird Al has taken advantage of the platform’s feature that allows artists to post a personalised video message to their loyal listeners, where he’s shared his gratitude for the big payday.

“I just want you to thank you all for your amazing support,” he told fans in the video, which you can stream above. “It’s my understanding that I had over 80 million streams on Spotify this year.”

He continued: “So if I’m doing the math right, that means I earned $12, so, you know, enough to get myself a nice sandwich at a restaurant. So from the bottom of my heart, thanks for your support. And, uh, thanks for the sandwich.”

Contrary to popular belief, artists are not paid per stream. Many platforms, Spotify included, use a pro-rata royalty system. Here’s how that works in broad strokes. Imagine that last month, Spotify generated $5,000,000. Imagine that you are an artist and received 100,000 streams on your music in that month. Finally, imagine that there were 8,000,000,0000 streams across the entire platform in that month. Your payout would be (100,000 / 8,000,000,000) * $5,000,000, or $625.

In short, you are paid a share of the total revenue pool based on how many streams you received compared to the entire platform. What this means is that you can receive the same number of streams in two separate months and be paid different amounts.

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Homebrewed is a radio program and podcast dedicated to supporting the Australian Music Industry. Cameron Smith and Eamonn Snow have been presenting Homebrewed since November 2017 and have received excellence awards and the admiration of local bands for their presentation of Homebrewed and their continued support of the Australian music scene. This podcast is designed so you can enjoy conversations with musicians, industry representatives and music media personalities.

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