Everyone would benefit from seeing what both pay the labels. Everyone speaks about “they only pay artists X per stream”. However, neither of them pays the artist directly.
Well that's not really their problem is it, I'm sure independent artists that do have their music on Spotify do get paid 'x per stream'. That is the problem with the music industry and their label signing deals.
There are very few independent artists on Spotify that get paid directly by Spotify. The absolute vast majority (easily 99.9999% of artists) are signed up via the four major labels or (if they are independent artists) via aggregators:
- Spotify only started signing up independent artists since 2017 or so [1] [2]
- Even there Spotify recommends you upload music through aggregators or labels [3] (I'm not even sure if you can get there as an artists without going through a label or a distributor)
> That is the problem with the music industry and their label signing deals.
The music industry has no other options but sign deals with labels. Because the major labels control the catalog of music that people listen to. Almost anything even remotely popular you listen to belongs to them: from Taylor Swift to Beatles, from Drake to Iron Maiden, from One Direction to Pink Floyd etc.
And the industry is too scared to say anything against the labels for fear of retribution. You go against Warner Music, they pull their content, and goodbye Slipknot, R.E.M., Skrillex, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Muse, Ed Sheeran, Eric Clapton, Ghorillaz, ... [4] You go against Sony, and... etc.
