The Hidden Cost of Spotify (from an indie musician) | ft. @CamJames

Spotify basically functions like a pyramid scheme. 70% of artists make nothing at all. 30% make barely minimum wage. And only the top fraction of a percent of artists are making money — along with Spotify execs of course. It’s killing the music industry.
Follow Cam James - @CamJames
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[whou]

The playbook for companies in the US today. Remember minimum wage arguments? "if they raise the minimum wage, prices for the consumer will go up". Yet, since then prices to the consumer went up anyway". Crazy right?

[MMuraseofSandvich]

I'm reminded of animators in Japan getting paid about 5 bucks a day for grueling work.
Corporations want to profit from art, but they don't want to pay for it.

[khabraal]

Cam James deserves this platform, he's amazing!

[dexterplant]

WTF does he mean free? The last time I bought a guitar it was $2500, that's not free, I have around $3000 invested in my drum kit, and those are just two examples of what this so called "free" is regarding creating music, unfortunately for me, because of the housing bubble burst back in the day, I almost lost everything, fortunately I still have my home which I can barely afford now, as for my musical instruments, only the drums are left, and I'm not a drummer, unfortunately I was never able to recover from that financially, since I was never rich or a bank to be bailed out like they were, I can't afford to make music, can't buy a new amp or guitar, microphone and supportive gear to create in a manner to share, it's not F ing Free! I'm cancelling my Spotify subscription today after seeing this.😢

[T.R.]

so very very tired of the creators, the people who actually make the product, whether it be a song, movie, game, or a wheelbarrow, getting bent over by the people who make nothing. only thing we can do is vote with our wallets, and find a way to independently support the creators we enjoy.

publishers have always been vampires. doesnt matter what media, they all do it. should be regulated.

[CyndiConnard]

The fact that the Founder and CEO of Spotify donated to the disaster of the trump and maga machine, made me boycott Spotify just as I left the Republican party and boycott those businesses whom donate to the GQP

[katephillips]

Let’s not forget Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group own shares of Spotify, major labels don’t like independent artists.

[ro]

Cam James and More Perfect Union!! Oh my goodness!!!

[harashe]

The major labels are disgusting-- they should have been handled by the government decades ago. Spotify has taken a disgusting industry (the corporate side) and broken it even more

[karenmclean]

I knew I didn't like Spotify. I refuse to pay them. I'd rather support the artists more directly by buying their music.

[MotownGal]

I'm a musician, but I also worked for a music and arts law firm in NYC. Our specialty was capturing artist's royalties. It's crazy how the corporations benefit and fail the artists who create the content that produces all that money. I've seen artist checks for $0.37. For. Real. Pathetic. The label, publisher, promoters, etc. got waaaay more than that. And companies like Spotify are very, very good at hiding the amount they actually owe the artists. I always loved when we found royalty funds.

[robertjones]

I have friends that are professional musicians and I can tell you for certain that companies steal the musicians work and pay them pitance. Very few artists ever receive the money or the credit they deserve.

[theboringbiker]

"My payouts were never very large but they kept me going... Those little amounts remind you, that there's value in your hustle, that all the hard work isn't for nothing." Stay real my guy, good words in this video

[tvbuu]

Spotify is a scam.

Due to things like payola, and the way they handle smaller artists it caused my monthly listeners to go from 200K+ to hovering around 50-60K Monthly.
Grateful to have the supporters still but there were a lot of other artists I know that had their numbers hit with a nuke after some changes they made to their site.

Good video.

[grege]

he believes music "is free to create" because he is getting there. Look up "peaceful piano" then go through any playlist that comes up. The artists joined Spotify in "June 2024" have no artist bio/description, only releases singles, has released 15 of them (IN A MONTH?!) and they are all on the same playlists and they all sound shockingly similar. I'm not saying AI wrote the songs but AI wrote those songs for damn near free to Spotify

[gordonmills]

The record labels were floundering when file-sharing and streaming made their money from physical media sales dried up. Spotify (and other services) saved them by saying "you know those crappy contracts you made acts sign that would give them pennies on the dollar? Well, we've got a plan where those artists get paid a fraction of a penny while you and us split the rest. Deal?" Artists were already struggling - unless you went at least "Gold" you went broke - but now it's even worse. Sell a million records back in the day? You could be a millionaire. Get a million streams now? You'd get a few thousand if you're lucky.

[BOZ_]

FREE? writing songs is free? performing is free?

[Cgeary]

LOVE to see Cam James on more perfect union

[PauletteSteen]

*Larry Burkett's book on "Giving and Tithing" drew me closer to God and helped my spirituality. 2020 was a year I literally lived it. I cashed in my life savings and gave it all away. My total giving amounted to 40, 000 dollars. Everyone thought I was delusional. Today, 1 receive 85, 000 dollars every two months. I have a property in Calabasas, CA, and travel a lot. God has promoted me more than once and opened doors for me to live beyond my dreams. God kept to his promises to and for me*

[tomreingold]

A musician friend of mine told me about the lousy deal that Spotify is for musicians. He told me that if I listen to an artist a lot over Spotify, I should buy their CDs so they get the royalties. And I do that. Sometimes I find the musician is selling digital files (such as mp3's), so I can buy those and not bother with the CDs. I just bought three digital albums from a favorite musician of mine after realizing I've streamed her stuff many times.