February 7, 2015 at 09:17Labels get almost 3 times a larger share of the profit from streaming music than musicians
The French organization Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique (SNEP, National Recording Syndicate), together with the British Ernst & Young, conducted a statistical study to find out the distribution of income from streaming music subscription services such as Spotify or Deezer. As a result, it became clear that music labels (46%) receive the lion's share of revenue, leaving artists about 17% after all deductions (taxes and the share of streaming service).
In absolute terms, the distribution of money looks like this: the subscription price is € 9.99, the music label from one user Spotify gets € 4.56, and the musicians account for € 0.68. Text, music, and editors get another € 1. Value Added Tax (TVA) is € 1.67, the rest goes to the platform itself. Graphically, it looks like this:
In percentage terms, excluding taxes and commission platforms, the difference is even more striking:
This is not the first time that it is discovered that publishers derive much more income from the copyright system than the authors themselves. In 2012, after a verdict against the creators of PirateBay, lawyers for the International Federation of Phonogram Manufacturers (IFPI) saidthat they’re not going to share damages with the authors, and the money will go to the further fight against piracy. Moreover, the amount of the claim was justified precisely because of the damage to specific artists. PirateBay founder Peter Sunde said bluntly: " They [labels] are more likely to buy cocaine with this money than to share with the authors they are" protecting . "
In absolute terms, the distribution of money looks like this: the subscription price is € 9.99, the music label from one user Spotify gets € 4.56, and the musicians account for € 0.68. Text, music, and editors get another € 1. Value Added Tax (TVA) is € 1.67, the rest goes to the platform itself. Graphically, it looks like this:
In percentage terms, excluding taxes and commission platforms, the difference is even more striking:
This is not the first time that it is discovered that publishers derive much more income from the copyright system than the authors themselves. In 2012, after a verdict against the creators of PirateBay, lawyers for the International Federation of Phonogram Manufacturers (IFPI) saidthat they’re not going to share damages with the authors, and the money will go to the further fight against piracy. Moreover, the amount of the claim was justified precisely because of the damage to specific artists. PirateBay founder Peter Sunde said bluntly: " They [labels] are more likely to buy cocaine with this money than to share with the authors they are" protecting . "