Noisetrade: Fan Generosity > Spotify Revenue
Brannon McAllister from Noisetrade–a site where bands offer music for free downloads–tweeted an interesting observation today: “Just ran some numbers: Artists make as much or more on Noisetrade as Spotify…”
If you are unfamiliar with Noisetrade, I’ll explain: Noisetrade offers users a chance to tip artists when downloading for free. Brannon is seeing that an artist might make more in tips than they do in streaming revenue from Spotify.
This is totally believable.
However, don’t get too excited, DIY folks. Musicians and songwriters shouldn’t see this as a business model; it’s just another reminder about appreciating generosity.
And I’ll repeat, the power of a few people’s generosity is worth more than a streaming company’s revenue share!
* * * What does this mean for the DIY Artist? * * *
Brannon admitted his metrics are based on averages site wide. These are numbers including national and regional acts using Noisetrade, not simply the masses of DIY artists like myself. (Picture the long tail applying here.)
Most of us don’t receive much in tips. However, you might increase tips if you ask for them, or offer your tips to a charity. (I’ll hypothesize those tips encouraged by going to charity/nonprofits are off setting Brannon’s metrics, too.)
* * * My Experiences with Noisetrade * * *
I’ve used Noisetrade over the last two years, and I love the site. I’ve had 1,520 downloads using Noisetrade.
One way I gained some traction was by buying a Noisetrade ad the same week as my release date, so I was on the front page; and then a New & Notable artist ad during the announcement of a DIY tour.
So yes, I did find that you make, $25-50 in tips as a new artist, which will be more than you would earn in Spotify streams that month (maybe year!), but I also needed to buy an AD to get that boast in attention from Noisetraders.
This leaves us DIY artists in the same place; if you are a new artist, don’t worry about the money earnings yet. Get the music out there and expect a slow build.
And try out Noisetrade! It’s a great site to find and share new music.
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