I’m writing this while listening to Kanye West’s College Dropout on Spotify. I bought the original album back in 2004, but CDs are a hassle to drag around. My 16GB iPhone 5S doesn’t have enough space to hold music, because of videos. My photos album has footage of mainly tours and festivals, which is where artists make the majority of money these days anyway. Does that justify streaming music eight hours a day at work?
Kanye West boasts millions and millions of plays on Spotify, but how does that translate royalty wise? Industry norms suggest artists receive roughly $0.008 per stream. To put that in perspective, it takes 150 streams to equal one download @ $1.29 (1500 streams for a standard album of 10 tracks.) Spotify is responsible for 6% of major label overall revenue, doubling last year’s total. On the other hand, iTunes download purchases, still account for approx. 40-50%, but that’s been in a rapid double-digit decline over the years.
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