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The remuneration of music artists is very extensive. There is the stage, the radio broadcasting rights, the sale of CDs or vinyls and finally, the streaming on the platforms. But do they bring so much to the artists?
All it takes is a simple press of the thumb to listen to all our favorite music for around ten euros a month. These platforms represent 80% of music consumption, and generate 65% of the sector’s global revenues.
For the moment, the musicians do not really benefit from it. A French reggae group is present on all platforms. Their latest album has garnered millions of streams. “Over one year, we generated just over five million streams”, affirms the saxophonist of Danakil. They brought in 18,000 euros to the record company, but only 10% goes to the artists. For a group of 11 people, they got away with 180 euros. “It does not allow to live”, continues the saxophonist. The main source of income for the group, as for others, are concerts.
Nine out of ten artists earn less than 1,000 euros on Spotify per year
Streaming platforms profit from subscriptions and advertising. The more an artist is listened to, the bigger his share becomes, and that of the others becomes small. Nine out of ten artists would earn less than 1,000 euros per year on Spotify. Conversely, stars like Daft Punk collect tens of millions each year.
How to move towards a fairer system? Senator Julien Bargeton proposes to tax platforms at 1.75%, to obtain 20 million euros to support French artists. “This will allow them to be better discovered, to pay more tours in the United States“, he says. The proposal is supported by a large part of the music unions.
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