In the Money Guardian on Saturday 2nd February 2013 there was an article “Music streaming goes mainstream”. It is self-evident that for people to purchase music they need to hear it. However with streaming there is a real problem with the level of artists royalties that are paid. A physical product such as a CD will earn the performer around 12% of the published price to dealers. However as recently reported in the New York Times, Zoe Keating a Californian musician provided a detailed case study of her earnings. “Even for an “under-the-radar artist like Ms Keating who describes her style as avant garde cello the numbers painted a stark picture”. Over 6 months her songs were played 1.5 million times on Pandora earning her 1,652.74 dollars and on Spotify in the year 2012 131,000 plays earned her 547.71 dollars or an average of 0.42 cents a play. As Ms Keating summed up, “in certain types of music like classical or jazz, we are condemning them to poverty if this is going to be the only way people consume music”. The underlying malaise is that new media distribution has allowed a scale of mass consumption of music hitherto unknown and in the process lowered people’s expectations of the price they should pay. It is crucial that the music industry re-establishes the value of music in today’s digital world; to do this it is vital that there is an increase in outlets for live music.
“It is crucial the music industry re-establishes the value of music in today’s digital world…….”
Please click on Live music to access the correspondence in Money Saturday Guardian 9th February 2013