The Berlin-based co-operative Resonate is pioneering a “stream-to-own” model: it charges listeners for the first nine plays of one song, the cost amounting to the average price of a download. The pay-as-you-go platform Sonstream charges listeners around 3.3p per play of a track, with 2.5p going directly to the rights holder. In the face of these intractable institutions, several streaming startups are offering more generous propositions than the current average per-stream rate across Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer of around £0.004. ‘I can’t see, at the moment, how it’s possible for musicians to survive,’ says Fiona Bevan. The committee subsequently warned streaming companies not to interfere in its investigation after witnesses expressed fear of reprisals from them. The parliamentary inquiry into streaming prompted more shocking revelations: the Mercury prize nominee Nadine Shah said her streaming revenues do not cover her rent, and the songwriter Fiona Bevan said she earned just £100 from co-writing a song for Kylie Minogue’s No 1 album Disco.
You may hate Ed Sheeran’s music, but you are still paying him for it.Ī recent poll by the Ivors Academy and Musicians’ Union found 82% of respondents earned less than £200 from streaming across the whole of 2019. Instead, the money forms a giant overall pool, and is paid out to artists in accordance with the number of streams they accrue, even if you personally never listen to them. In the payment structure used by the big streaming services, the money you spend on a subscription is not paid directly to the artists you are playing.
Artist compensation was already volatile before Covid-19 made touring impossible, and while streaming is up 20% during the pandemic, that does not mean much for many artists.
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