Band: The Layaways

where you get the $0.0041792 per play from?

I'm tracking spotify payment at spotifyroyalties.blogspot.com

and the number is higher than that

That's an average calculated over a longer period of time.  Actually we're seeing payouts in the 1/3 to 1/2 (ie, $.003 to $.005) range for Spotify, though I'm sure there are plenty of data points outside that range.

/paul

But iTunes match doesn't allow people to listen to music that they didn't  already have. It's kind of apples and oranges when comparing spotify and match.

What exactly is an iTunes Match play? When I play a song that's in the Match Cloud on my iPhone, Match downloads the song to my phone. The file stays there so what about the next plays of the same song?

If only the Match download creates revenue, it will never be much of an income source I guess.

Isn't it better to look at the number of "plays" instead of the rate?

BTW Paul, why not link  to the source of the data: ( Digital Audio Insider)

yes, will do. pardon the err.

/paul

Come on, are we arguing over thousandths of a penny?  bwaaahahahahahahahahhaaa   Streaming services blow.  We know that.

Spotify pays crap, obviously. But why is iTunes Match even paying artists? All it does it take the music you already own and "put in the cloud". That's like having to pay a book author a monthly fee if you put the book into storage. This is not something that should require a license or permission from a copyright holder.

You are right. I guess Apple wants to remain the sweethart of the big labels.

Time to put this "big label" buzzword in its' place.  The number of independent artist, releasing songs/cds on their own, and independent labels has literally exploded over the past decade.

It is unreasonable and unrealistic to speak of the music business as just the major labels.  While its' a great hook to support your position, it is a distortion and part of the P2P lexicon that uses disinformation to legitimize bad behavior.  

These anti-artist licensee fees that Spotify and others have been able to negotiate, create an unsustainable revenue model for the artist.

The much bigger problem, which is not being addressed, is how the cloud differentiates itself from the P2P model and just how devastating free "cloud" file sharing will be for artists.  

There are dark clouds on the horizon and literally no open conversation with stake holders as to how cloud based file sharing will impact their ability to sell downloads and cds and earn a living or rather survive. 

True. The listener has to acquire the file properly in the first place by purchasing it (or freely, if it is distributed freely by its content creators).

- Versus

VERY MISLEADING.

The "Americas" includes revenue from South America, which will artificially bring down the price per match.

How about providing some US-only revenue so we can get a true sense of the actual rate?

On our iTunes directly distributed titles, U.S. iTunes Match revenues were nudging 2% of iTunes sales back in April. showing consistent monthly growth but have stalled since then. 

The 2% is comparable to Spotify U.S. revenues on a much broader catalog.

The more interesting comparison is in Europe.

The numbers for Spotify (Europe) and iTunes (Europe) are in the same ballpark, which is not saying much, as each represents circa. 1% each of our total digital revenues.

We do ZERO to game the systems for higher payouts.

Any free streaming service with pro rata revenue share(s) have me worried.  At least with iTunes Match, they are only paying this streaming income on titles in their normal download catalog. I expect that they will detect abuse, such as titles achieving 1000% of streaming revenue vis a vis paid downloads. Remember, we're at 2% on a clean comparison on deep catalog.  What methodology can/will Spotify use?  

@Micol -- it is apples and oranges, I only made the comparison to Spotify rates because CD Baby says "Pay rates should look similar to streaming services such as Spotify."

@um -- agreed, I don't think moving your music to the cloud should require any additional payment. Though at least one major label group has been litigious about it in the past (EMI suing Michael Robertson of MP3tunes), so maybe Apple figured it wasn't worth the hassle.  As far as I know, however, neither Google or Amazon are making payments for music transferred from their cloud storage services and it hasn't resulted in any legal action.

@Roger -- CD Baby doesn't provide any breakdown for "Americas," but I'm 99% certain that all of the activity was for the U.S.  The monthly payout amounts weren't averages -- we were paid the same amount for every "play" during each month. So I think we're looking at a single country, and it's most likely the U.S., unless we've suddenly developed a South American audience. :)

iTunes Match pays less than Spotify for individual plays - but it assumes track ownership.

Musicians stop being a fool and just sell this music on your own website. Here is a breakdown of what to do:

1. Copyright your music, PA forms is for your lyrics SR forms for your soundrecording

2. Get your CD manufactured by CD Baby or any other reputable disc manufacturing company

3. Get a barcode to track your music

4. form a BMI or ASCAP publishing company

5. Get a good entertainment attorney

6. Put some music in local record stores, sell some music at your shows, Look for a co-signment deal with the local record stores in your hometown the split will be much more better than selling your music on iTunes, Tunecore,Cd universe, Rome was not built in a day. Learn as much as you can about the music business. You can use youtube for videos but for radio don't forget about college radio.

7. Music contracts.com

Follow these steps and use this as a guideline and you will not go wrong. Think about this you are the artist so you should control your music. Does it make sense to be under any label, if you still have to work a 9-5? Learn the business and stop being fools.

I just posted the comment above if anyone needs any help with breaking down this whole music game I can be reached by email at:

mgrcds1234@aol.com