Interesting article, thank you for posting it. I think the moral of the story is that record labels have been screwing artists over for a hundred years, and it's no different in our modern age....
Exemplary
Interesting article, thank you for posting it. I think the moral of the story is that record labels have been screwing artists over for a hundred years, and it's no different in our modern age. Artists today, however, have the option to operate outside of the record label system completely. It just takes a lot more work and a lot more skills. If you want to be completely independent, you not only have to be a good musician, you have to be good at business, marketing, recording, graphic design, and more. It's doable but it's really, really hard.
I say this as a novelist who has been independent and completely DIY for going on 7 years. I'm able to be a professional writer all because of Amazon and their Kindle Unlimited program, which is sort of the Spotify for books if you're unfamiliar. When I release a book into Kindle Unlimited, I entered it into a 90-day exclusivity contract with Amazon (that renews automatically unless I opt out) and in turn they pay me around $0.0043 per page read. It's a tiny number, but it adds up over many books and many readers. Additionally, plenty of readers still outright buy ebooks and some even still buy paperbacks.
To just play with a little math, consider a book of about 250 pages. If a reader reads all 250 pages of my book, I earn about $1.08 from that reader. If I sell that same book outright for $4.99, I earn a 70% royalty, so $3.50. Add this up over thousands of readers and the money begins to look a lot better. You just have to keep writing and keep publishing to stay afloat.
According to the article, an artist on Spotify earns $3.48 for 1000 streams. If a song is on average 3.5 minutes, an artist earns $3.48 for 3500 minutes/58.333 hours of music. And if they're on a label, they get even less after the label's cut. In my world, if just one person buys my book, I earn more than 1000 streams of a song on Spotify. If 3.5 readers read my book in Kindle Unlimited, I earn more than the musician. I have some voracious readers who read my new books in an afternoon. In 58 hours, you could probably read 10 of my books.
I have no publishing company. It's just me. I don't farm anything out. I write, I edit, I design my covers, I do my own marketing, and I get to keep all my income apart from that 30% I pay Amazon on full sales of a book. Even still, if a musician tried to do what I do, among a band of say three or four people, there would be no way they could earn a livable income from music streaming services. Or maybe they'd just have to produce like I do. I've written 30+ novels.
Maybe it's because listening to music is a passive exercise, and reading a book is active. You can just have an album on in the background while you do other things, but you have to pay attention when you read a book. Is the value of entertainment higher with a book as compared to an album? I don't know. I love both. And a great album to me can be just as amazing as a great book.
I don't have any grand conclusions. I just think the economic comparisons between what I do and what musicians do, when it comes to streaming, is interesting to consider.
I think your penultimate paragraph really touches on something there. If I'm paying £10 for a month of Spotify that's split over however many songs 3 hours a day. I don't and can't read for 3...
I think your penultimate paragraph really touches on something there. If I'm paying £10 for a month of Spotify that's split over however many songs 3 hours a day. I don't and can't read for 3 hours a day and even if I did that's 10 books over a month minus the 30% at 70p or $1 which seems fairly accurate to expect of someone who pays for a subscription for books.
I'm curious about audio books and what the difference is with them. (If you know) Do they exist in-between music and books? Do they lean more towards one or the other in terms of compensation?
I'm curious about audio books and what the difference is with them. (If you know)
Do they exist in-between music and books? Do they lean more towards one or the other in terms of compensation?
I honestly don't know, as I haven't dipped my toes into audiobooks yet. I do know, however, that through ACX a writer like me can partner with a voiceover artist and do a royalty split. That's for...
I honestly don't know, as I haven't dipped my toes into audiobooks yet. I do know, however, that through ACX a writer like me can partner with a voiceover artist and do a royalty split. That's for full sales, though, as far as I know. I'm not sure of the payment scheme for audiobook streaming. It's all on my list to figure out one of these days, as audiobooks are really growing in popularity and I'm foolish for not getting into it earlier.
Interesting article, thank you for posting it. I think the moral of the story is that record labels have been screwing artists over for a hundred years, and it's no different in our modern age. Artists today, however, have the option to operate outside of the record label system completely. It just takes a lot more work and a lot more skills. If you want to be completely independent, you not only have to be a good musician, you have to be good at business, marketing, recording, graphic design, and more. It's doable but it's really, really hard.
I say this as a novelist who has been independent and completely DIY for going on 7 years. I'm able to be a professional writer all because of Amazon and their Kindle Unlimited program, which is sort of the Spotify for books if you're unfamiliar. When I release a book into Kindle Unlimited, I entered it into a 90-day exclusivity contract with Amazon (that renews automatically unless I opt out) and in turn they pay me around $0.0043 per page read. It's a tiny number, but it adds up over many books and many readers. Additionally, plenty of readers still outright buy ebooks and some even still buy paperbacks.
To just play with a little math, consider a book of about 250 pages. If a reader reads all 250 pages of my book, I earn about $1.08 from that reader. If I sell that same book outright for $4.99, I earn a 70% royalty, so $3.50. Add this up over thousands of readers and the money begins to look a lot better. You just have to keep writing and keep publishing to stay afloat.
According to the article, an artist on Spotify earns $3.48 for 1000 streams. If a song is on average 3.5 minutes, an artist earns $3.48 for 3500 minutes/58.333 hours of music. And if they're on a label, they get even less after the label's cut. In my world, if just one person buys my book, I earn more than 1000 streams of a song on Spotify. If 3.5 readers read my book in Kindle Unlimited, I earn more than the musician. I have some voracious readers who read my new books in an afternoon. In 58 hours, you could probably read 10 of my books.
I have no publishing company. It's just me. I don't farm anything out. I write, I edit, I design my covers, I do my own marketing, and I get to keep all my income apart from that 30% I pay Amazon on full sales of a book. Even still, if a musician tried to do what I do, among a band of say three or four people, there would be no way they could earn a livable income from music streaming services. Or maybe they'd just have to produce like I do. I've written 30+ novels.
Maybe it's because listening to music is a passive exercise, and reading a book is active. You can just have an album on in the background while you do other things, but you have to pay attention when you read a book. Is the value of entertainment higher with a book as compared to an album? I don't know. I love both. And a great album to me can be just as amazing as a great book.
I don't have any grand conclusions. I just think the economic comparisons between what I do and what musicians do, when it comes to streaming, is interesting to consider.
I think your penultimate paragraph really touches on something there. If I'm paying £10 for a month of Spotify that's split over however many songs 3 hours a day. I don't and can't read for 3 hours a day and even if I did that's 10 books over a month minus the 30% at 70p or $1 which seems fairly accurate to expect of someone who pays for a subscription for books.
I'm curious about audio books and what the difference is with them. (If you know)
Do they exist in-between music and books? Do they lean more towards one or the other in terms of compensation?
I honestly don't know, as I haven't dipped my toes into audiobooks yet. I do know, however, that through ACX a writer like me can partner with a voiceover artist and do a royalty split. That's for full sales, though, as far as I know. I'm not sure of the payment scheme for audiobook streaming. It's all on my list to figure out one of these days, as audiobooks are really growing in popularity and I'm foolish for not getting into it earlier.