How and why artists are the least compensated for their art.

Redhouse, the per/spin pay is fractional of course. The RIAA, which certifies record "sales" awards in the US, uses 150 single plays as equivalent to one purchase of a physical product. 1500 plays equals one album sale. Since very few people stream whole albums today, it's mostly single songs now which register.

For legacy artists with hits, it's not so dire. BOC gets paid for streaming anytime somebody listens. Streaming today is an amalgamation of what used to be radio play and record sales. If the public knows your music and wants to hear it, you're gonna do alright, and for old timers like BOC, and the big stars of today, it's alright, if not better than the old days of physical records where everybody anywhere in the making/promoting/distributing/reporting chain was skimming along the way to the artist. At least with digital, the bookkeeping is fairly exact.

The problem for new artists today is to get traction in a wide open field of a zillion creators. Anybody can put music up on the streaming services. How do you get anyone to check your stuff out? I don't know.. Buzz is great. It does happen, but only for a few, I suppose.

When I grew up, you picked your favorites out of maybe 10-12 new songs a week. Later on, you'd hear about new artists through friends or sometimes ads or other hype. But you'd have to hear it to like it. Same today. You have to hear it to like it.

The article is right in the sense no one is going to make a living on 50,000 plays. You might have enough fans in a local market with those numbers, but no big check from streaming. 100,000 plays is butkis.

How much would you listen to streaming services if you had to pay a nickel for every song you heard? Even a penny? Streaming succeeds because the fee is acceptable for the convenience and access. Apple returns 70% of the income to creators. They take 30% Dunno about the others, but it's a better deal than the old days.

Think about how little of all recorded music you'll ever get the opportunity to hear, much less appreciate. I like to check out some new stuff fairly regularly, but I've gotta be sold in 25 seconds or so, or NO. There's so much the music of my lifetime that I'm just gratified to be able to hear when I want to, without buying every damn CD or whatever.

I'm ok with streaming. I had no hand in creating what's so right now, but it's unexpectedly better than the record business was in BOC's heyday. Go figure.

Very interesting, I wondered how that all worked. Since I listen to BÖC on repeat while traveling, they must see a spike in their income on those days!!!!!!!