The Problem with Music

The streaming economy doesn't work for artists. In 2019, only 12% of music industry revenues went to artists. And, in Spotify's investor relations reports, payouts to rights holders are labeled as "cost of revenue" or "content costs".

Second, creators are already exploited: Spotify is very much like the universal searchable information database for music, it just operates for profit rather than for artists, and rights-holders get a fraction of a cent per Spotify play, an amount that must itself split between the label, the producer, the artist, and the songwriter. The CEO of Spo... See more