Retiring Folk the Police was the right call
Matthew Altruda retired Folk the Police Friday, in consideration of the importance of respecting culture, race and the gray area of the holistic direction of the musical performances.
His short video powerfully took ownership.
It was the right choice, and I wanted to send my support to Matthew for making it. As a participant of the concert last year, I am reminded how we must take ownership our representation of art, with a recognition of the history behind it, and the way it is being presented.
I normally take the weekend off from blogging, but Matthew hosts Tree Town Sound tonight on 107.1 FM, and he’s celebrating an anniversary year with his radio show, today– too–so I wanted to voice some positive vibes on Sunday.
Let’s tune in at 6 PM on 107.1 FM, and keep our music scene flowing.
My wife snapped this photo of our dog Lois, who crying and didn’t know how to get out of the baby play area.
It says so much, doesn’t it?
If you feel trapped with your project, examine how you got there. If you were able to make yourself feel trapped, you can get out!
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Short blog today. Spencer Michaud and I hit the road for two gigs. We are on the radio tomorrow at noon (EST) on AcousticSongs on WNJR!
You can stream the show here: http://www2.washjeff.edu/WNJR/
Acoustic Songs will post a video of the performances later at their site.
Where is the “hide all posts about Trump” on Facebook?
Where is the “Hide all posts about Donald Trump” option on Facebook?
America’s Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1882 looks like friendly cupcakes compared to this guy’s uninformed rhetoric. He could make America great again by reading multiple history books and closing his mouth.
I’m torn between speaking out and feeding the narcissist’s attention.
Reminder: This is our opportunity to show empathy, beat fear, speak out, stand with helping refugees:
Your Spotify data proves recorded music’s devalued.
Artists are often told by pundits or industry folks, “Your audience isn’t big enough. No one is listening to your music. That’s why you aren’t getting paid through streaming!”
I tend to agree, to a point. But what about artists that do have audiences? What about our TOP streamed artists from our own listening behavior?
Spotify’s sharing that with Year In Music. Look your’s up!
I queried my friends for their data about how many minutes of music they streamed, and how many streams their top artists accumulated from their accounts.
Six of my friends wrote back. All of them are major music consumers. Five streamed more than me, four almost doubled my 14,000 minutes. (I thought I was a major music consumer, but maybe I’m average!)
But how long will it take those streams to equal one sale? Here’s the streaming for folks top artist:
- Dan (from my favorite jam group Liquid Monk) streamed Flying Lotus 720 times.
- Brian streamed Wilco 600 times this year.
- Jake streamed Elliot Smith 600+ times
- I spent 409 streams with Gabriel Kahane
- Nate spent 276 streams on Catfish and the Bottlemen
- Josh Woodward (a songwriting hero!) streamed Death Cab 232 times.
- James said his top artists were between 200-300.
None of that equals a sale yet, folks. (1500 streams is one album sale; 150 streams is one single sale.) And that’s our top artist!
How long would it take for just our top artist to get one sale from us? If we still stream their music at this rate, three years? Five years? (Plus, if you are using the ad-tier, which might pay out $0.002 or less, forget it!)
What about our fifth most streamed artist? How long would it take them to earn a sale?
Plus, next year, do you see your top five artist staying the same? It could take five to ten years to stream our top artists enough to earn one sale.
Ten years? Really?
I’m not saying this is right or wrong, but the debate is over: recorded music has been devalued by this system.
1000 true fans on a streaming platform is not the same as 1000 true fans buying a CD, or vinyl, if you are lucky to have an audience that buys those beautiful, black records.
I’m not suggesting we should take our music off of streaming sites, nor am I suggesting selling CDs is an answer when computers don’t come with CD drives. I do understand why major artist are pulling some punches windowing releases, but we don’t make royalties off piracy, off folks trading hard drives, off folks ripping CDs off of libraries.
So musicians and songwriters, we have to adapt to survive. I don’t know what that looks like, but everyone’s road is going be unique.
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PS: Fewer than 10% of ad-tier consumers on Spotify streamed a full album. Playlists and singles were their choice. – via Hypebot
The perfect Spotify consumer; how much an artist makes
At $10 a month, Spotify costs $120 a year (+tax) for a subscription. 70% of that goes to rights holders. ($84)
As artists and consumers, we often ask, how much does Spotify pay per stream? Spotify admits it doesn’t actually pay per stream, but that’s the only way for us on the outside to really get an estimation.
If you looked at your “Year in Spotify” data as a consumer, here’s something to consider: How much are artists making from your streams? It takes 150 streams to equal one single sale; 1500 to equal an album.
Spotify says the average pay out is $0.006-0.008 per stream. If $84 dollars goes to rights holders, that means 875-1167 streams per month is the sweet spot for an artist to earn the average rate.
If you stream more than that a month, artists will earn less. Spotify isn’t going to pay more than 70% to rights holders. So if you stream 1750 tracks a month, artists might earn about $0.004 per stream.
However, what if consumer only consumes 400-500 streams that month? Does an artist make more? I never see a payout more than $0.005. Shouldn’t an artist be earning $0.01 or more if I don’t stream a lot? I’ve never seen a payment that high as an artist!
What if I only play ONE artist all year! Does that artist earn $84?
Something does seem right to me.
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Either way, niche artists don’t make much from streaming. Time is against an artist.
I asked my friends how many streams their top artists got from them. No one was even close to half of 1500 streams for one artist in a year. Most were in the 200 streams range. Plus, if they are using an AD-tier, it might take triple the streams to equal a sale.
