For Canada, which keeps data on these things, here's the CD graph (left) vs. the streaming graph (right).
For streaming, performers get a larger slice of the pie.
I’ve not yet met a recording artist who had found streaming had delivered a bigger slice of pie. I know a lot of music-making people who have gone from middle class lifestyle to driving Ubers to eat. Did you ever look at @zoecello.bsky.social’s breakdowns on what you get paid per stream?
Streaming has turned gigs from break even to guaranteed money losers.
I used to be able to sell a couple of CDs at a gig. That + the $12-25 I'd get paid for the gig covered the cost of gas and maybe dinner.
Now, I generally lose money on the gas cost alone.
1 CD sale=80 years streaming revenue 4 me.
In case anybody is unclear on the math:
50 miles is the distance from where I can afford to live (SFV) to where I can get booked in a show (Long Beach).
~100 miles round-trip.
Car gets 18MPG
So 5.6 gallons of gas. Call it 6.
Gas is ~$5 a gallon.
So we need $30 to break even on gas alone.
Pays $12-25
$0 if the room is completely empty.
$12 if the room is mostly empty, but the bartender likes me, at least.
$25 if there is actually a crowd (usually came to see somebody else).
Best case leaves me $5 short. Best case is very rare.
But I could usually sell 1-3 CDs if anybody shows up.
B4 streaming.
CDs are $10.
So just ONE CD sale turns a $25 show into a break-even show.
Two CD sales turns a $12 show into a break-even show.
Three CD sales are unlikely at a $0 show, but would make it a break even show.
People say "I listen to all my music on Spotify" and I get nothing. This actually happened!
"You don't get the liner notes on Spotify. You don't get album artwork, inside and out, on Spotify. You don't get an autograph on Spotify. You don't get the satisfaction of supporting a small artist on Spotify."
It's a Toyota Minivan. You know, the kind of vehicle one uses to carry gear to a gig...
I can't afford to own and insure two cars, so I own the one with the most utility.
Still better mileage than an SUV, and more cargo space too.
New Sienna are hybrid and get 35mpg, if you believe them.
Yeah, I'm not suggesting you run two, I'm just always staggered by USA fuel efficiency (or lack of). 18mpg would be considered dreadful for a minivan in Europe. Most cars are now closer to 50mpg.
But regardless of that, the streaming model is awful for musicians.
So, the listed MPG for the car is 20-22 US (24-27 UK MPG).
18-18.5 MPG is what I'm actually getting, which is about 22 UK MPG.
I looked up UK MPG for minivans and got 33-50 real UK MPG which does seem quite good. I think they are all diesels.
In the US, Diesel is about 20% more, only 3% more in UK.
I tried to look up my car in the UK, and they don't sell it, the closest Toyota sells is the Proace Versio, which is supposed to get 53 UK MPG but is more like 49 UK MPG. That's still really good.
It's probably down to the much smaller engine in the UK vehicles, 4 cylinders in UK vs 6 in the US.
What about digital sales, i.e. MP3? Do you get more money on these compared to streaming?
Asking since I don't use Spotify & such and always buy MP3 albums for download. I like to "own" books/music/movies, even if they are digital files. I'd love to know if artists get more money this way too.
I would, except that nobody ever bothers to do it.
If they can stream with zero effort, they generally won't raise a finger to pay for a download and put it on a device that they can listen to it on.
Putting songs on streaming costs me money, and doesn't make any money at all.
$0.00013/play=$0/life
Dang, that sucks. It's really not that hard... I do it all the time. You can even have the downloading apps on your phone to download the music and directly listen to it. But yeah, I'm not surprised by what you say. Most people I know use streaming for music. I feel old fashioned.
I think I've made like $0.18 streaming, all time. Amazon Music appears to be the least stingy, where they actually pay you a penny for every stream or something like that
I still buy CDs and then copy them to my Smartphone to play them with musicolet (a not-for-profit player app which will not upload content to the internet). But I'm a pensioneer and younger people don't do that. I hope content creators like you will form a world-wide union to fight the exploitation.
I'm a zoomer. I upload bought music to my phone and listen to it through my music app. Plenty of us have ways to listen to bought music. Many of us use streaming to find music we're interested in before buying it. We use it like people used to use the radio, but its tailored for our interests.
While it is true that streaming services do exploit creatives, nobody will argue that not to be the case, I don't think there's a reason to throw US under the bus just because a cartel exists which profits by paying content creators actual slave wages with exploitative contracts.
The problem is with the capitalistic nature of our economic system. Fix that and this issue gets fixed automatically as a consequence. Don't need to make it about old people vs young people. Make the rich actually serve the people they get rich off of.
I suspect lobbying for reasonable rates for streaming ($0.10 per play) would never succeed.
The streaming sites and online radio sites could never exist if they actually paid even a fraction of a living wage for streams.
Consumers would hate suddenly having to pay for music, just like the last time
Reasonable rates would be $0.12/play based on the going rate for mechanical licenses for a cover. But very few people would have an issue paying for their music. The "nobody would pay for reasonable rates" myth is just that so streaming services can scam their creators.
I've been wondering why more artists don't have QR codes that take me to an album purchase page on bandcamp or similar. Is the barrier to entry high?
I would love to buy an album, but I literally don't own a device with a CD player. Fewer and fewer people do these days.
I had a "gig card" to hand out at shows with the various places to get the music on it.
It didn't help, really.
Seriously, you need to lock in the sale immediately, or 99.99% of the time they won't bother when they get home.
When I had regular shows and CDs were a thing, I sold 100s... Now, zero.
I mean, you definitely know your business better than I do. I assumed a QR code with a purchase link would enable you to lock the sale in, since there's no going home first step.
I'm sorry to hear it doesn't work. I'm honestly at a loss about how to buy my favourite artists' albums lately.
I'm honestly not even sure what to do with a QR code if somebody gives me one.
My card had text links to websites that you had to type in.
I think somebody did it once in venue. I'm not sure anybody else every looked at them at all, TBH.
Most phone cameras will take you to the link the QR code is for if you point them at it.
But yeah, definitely not everyone knows how to use them. It's an obstacle for sure. I wish there was a solution.
Artists need to get paid properly for streaming/download sales. Bandcamp is better than nothing, but is a tiny player in comparison to the big streamers. Shittify is the biggest problem here.
I like Bandcamp, but it's fate seems uncertain.
I wonder if it might be time to start a similar, alternative service with the mission of not fucking it up.
Maybe has its own radio app compatible with your music from other sources too?
Ways to share and participate as a fan?
Can music alone support?
I would definitely support that, but I’m probably in the minority. A radio app would be great. Some artists have had success with crowdfunding/patreon but that just seems to benefit the ones who can shout loudest.
I don’t have answers unfortunately.
People say "you have to hustle, you have to promote!" And I have absolutely no idea what that means that you do.
When I ask them, they get all huffy and offended and don't actually answer.
Seriously, WTF do you do to get people to come to shows or buy CDs?
I'm 54 and my friends are adults...
I hate streaming music. Hate the algorithmic persuasion. The beauty of physical media is putting a cd on in the car and having to listen to whole albums and discover them in full. Sitting at home reading the booklet and learning who did what. Wondering who the people are in the thank you notes.
I have a friend who sells CDs at shows for tips, whatever you can afford. He does pretty well that way. Some people give $1, some $20. Wording it as "any tip, free CD" seems to hit a good nerve. He's said it comes out about the same a it did 20 years ago.
Sounds interesting.
So people don't just come up and grab all the CDs and use them for coasters or frisbees or whatever?
I've found that, when something is "FREE" people assume it is bad, and won't even bother with it.
But if it is working for your friend, maybe that isn't true?
Or nice audience?
His band is Wolgemut. It's usually a nice combination of a good crowd and they're really into the music (and a fantastic band too). He doesn't word it as free, he just says after the show with any tip, give what you can afford and you can choose one of the CDs.
Well, that sounds nice.
I'm often playing to randos in some bar I've never heard of, where nobody knows me either, so I don't know how well this would work, but if I ever get another booking, maybe I'll try it.
Getting anybody to even TAKE a CD now is hard.
They have nothing to play them on...
How hard do you push the CDs during your shows?
I've run vendor tables at camps and the artists are generally pretty bad at pushing their own merchandise.
I don't think there's any shame in mentioning the sale of one CD covers 40 years of streaming royalties at the show. Most folks have no clue.
I think the causes of declining cd sales are more complex than that. I don't use music streaming. But I wouldn't buy a cd, because I no longer have a device to play it on.
Yeah, a lot of people don't.
Because streaming is easy and free.
If streaming wasn't a thing, people would either be paying for downloads or for media, wouldn't they?
Yeah I guess so. I more or less stopped listening to music altogether since streaming became huge and cd playing pcs stopped being a thing. But a lot of people mainly use streaming, I think.
Yikes! I would never play a gig where I earn less than $150. Nobody should. When people do, it forces wages down for musicians everywhere who are trying to make a living.
