These Damn Spotify Metrics: Get That Carrot Out My Face

You have to love how Spotify got everyone’s business out there…

If you go on social media, it’s unavoidable.

Artists posting their yearly streams/fans/hours graphic generated by Spotify and equally, the writers objecting to it.

Is this another case of writers being out of touch with what’s important? Are they envious? Why does there seem to be such a great divide?

Me? Personally, I understand both sides. I write on Medium. And, while I don’t post the metrics, I do check them.

But what’s at play here is something different, something that, hopefully I can spell out quickly (though if it takes a lot of words, fuck it).

Prince was on it.

It used to be a source of frustration but Prince wasn’t with the shits. You weren’t finding his music on YouTube. No VEVO. No nothing. Prince didn’t see any good coming out of streaming…but he loved his fans and decided if he would have his music out there, he’d roll with Tidal…but that’s neither here nor there.

And he wasn’t alone in that.

This is what Radiohead’s Thom Yorke had to say:

I feel like as musicians we need to fight the Spotify thing. I feel that in some ways what’s happening in the mainstream is the last gasp of the old industry. Once that does finally die, which it will, something else will happen.

And that’s exactly what some artists did…well, I won’t call it a fight, I’ll call it sparring practice.

When Adele released 25 back in November of 2015, it wasn’t available to stream. Not on Spotify. Not on Apple Music. Amazon Prime. No where. And she racked up sales, selling 3 milly in the first week, numbers that rival the multiplatinum days of the early aughts.

Her reasoning was this:

I believe music should be an event. For me, all albums that come out, I’m excited about leading up to release day. I don’t use streaming. I buy my music. I download it, and I buy a physical [copy] just to make up for the fact that someone else somewhere isn’t. It’s a bit disposable, streaming.

Couple o’ years later, Taylor Swift tried the same thing in a way that is fitting of Taylor Swift. She too didn’t allow streaming of her album (reputation)…for a week. Which worked out. She moved 1.2M copies that first week.

I’m sure you see the theme — these are all super large, established artists. And, eventually, they did end up on some form of streaming service.

Well let me tell you something about these Record Labels, if you haven’t learned by now, they are playing the long game. Seven months, one week, or in Prince and Michael Jackson’s case, a lifetime, it doesn’t matter, like the Casino, the house always wins.

They wear the artists down and if that doesn’t work, they’ll wear the public down. And that’s exactly what they did with streaming.

I have a long, ongoing rant about how corporations are pushing us into a renters society.

Whether we’re talking about the rise of leasing automobiles, increase in home costs, urbanization, or simply the introduction of the leased cellphone, humans are being sold the “convenience” of not owning.

“You always get the new.”

“You save space.”

“You don’t have to worry about the upkeep.”

While that’s being pushed on the public, corporations are gobbling up everything: more land, buying their competition, and everything in sight.

The music business is no different.

We’ve written extensively on it already so you can click on them hyperlinks and check that out, but we never really dealt with streaming.

Remember awhile back when I wrote about coming over to the dark side? It was temporary. I’m of the belief now that if it ain’t on my phone, then I ain’t meant to be listening to it. I shoulda been better prepared. I want to own my music.

Really, I want to own everything.

I watched this week as people decried Netflix for paying $10M for Friends in one breath and then in the next one go apeshit over The Last Dragon being on the same platform.

I read people moaning all the time about what they can’t find on Apple Music or Spotify or Netflix or Amazon Prime all the time, and I’ve done it too.

But think about that for a second.

Originally, you listened to something once and you may never hear it again. Then LPs shrank from the big ass cake like platters to something manageable. After that, the 45 took the world by storm. Finally, you could own music and it was convenient.

Then the cassette was introduced. I’ll save you the trouble. Record Labels lost their shit. If you scan through Billboard in the late 60s and early 70s, not a week went by without some scathing report on how the cassette would ruin everything (Hollywood had the same argument with the VHS).

The 70s and 80s saw the consumer wrestle some control away from the Record Labels. You didn’t have to buy music to listen to it. If you lived in a good market, your radio provided you with all that you needed. Your price was as low as the quality of cassette you wanted.

Then came the CD.

Again, they sold us on the convenience and the quality, but that jawn was self-contained. It took a minute before you could record on to them and even then, it was from pre-existing CDs. This was the Record Labels at their height. These are the golden days of the late 90s and early aughts.

Expensive, flashy videos, CD sales-generating shows like TRL and 106 and Park ruled the roost. What a wonderful time to be a record man.

The rise of Napster/Limewire, etc and the advent of the MP3 once again turned the tables back in the direction of the consumer, the Record Labels were almost KO’d, but like Tyson Fury doing his best Undertaker impression, they popped back up…and now they’re winning again.

It’s no surprise that Drake is one of the most streamed artists in the world.

On Spotify alone, he’s racking up 8.2 BILLION streams. You read that right. Eight Point Two BILLION streams. Billion.

And, I know Dame Dash won’t approve, but I’m bout to talk about another man’s money in t-minus…

Spotify started the year valued at $19.5B, went public, starting selling stocks worth $165 a share, that increased their value to about $30B. All of which makes founder Daniel Ek a pretty wealthy man with an estimated worth of $2.2B.

Now lets get back to Drake and them 8.2 Billion streams. Industry investigators estimate the rate that Spotify pays an artist at 0.00397 per stream. If you’re tryna do the math, I’ll help you. That’s roughly $35M (the record labels make that in three days), which, I’m sure you may think, “not bad.” And it’s not. Until you look up at Daniel Ek, or you take a gander at Lucian Grainge’s $6.9B.

You may still think, “oh well, so what.”

If you’re an artist, it’s highly unlikely that you’re Drake. So how many streams will it take for you to make…minimum wage?

Check our this graphic from Information is Beautiful:

Ok, let’s say even that, having to stream 2M times to make minimum wage means nothing to you. Well, then, shit, man.

I can only speak for myself. I’m tired of people eating off of us. Even back in the day when I was working at Burger King #404 at 16, those little fifteen cent raises (which brought me from $3.35 an hour to $3.50 an hour) used to piss me off. Even as a sophomore in High School I could see that my hard work was enriching someone else.

Don’t let these people tell you anything different, we are their biggest asset. We are the creators of their content and the consumers of their product. When we’re out here grinding, making ourselves hot, winning fans, building up a following…we’re doing it for them. They are making the lions share for our labor.

So don’t go waving my fucking numbers in front of my face, have me out here setting goals to increase my numbers….only to see you pay me less than a penny. Naw, bruv. Keep your carrot. Give me the damn cart.

Remember, hit them clapping hands, share, and most importantly, hyperlinks are your friend.