

Record Labels Keeping All the Money from Spotify, Rather Than Giving to Artists - amitmittal1993
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150204/07310329906/yes-major-record-labels-are-keeping-nearly-all-money-they-get-spotify-rather-than-giving-it-to-artists.shtml

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anigbrowl
Typical techdirt bullshit.

 _The report claims that 95% of that money that goes to the labels goes to
cover all of the "expenses" those poor poor labels have to endure to record
and... um... upload(?) the actual music. Sure, in the past, it may have been
reasonable for the labels to take on large fees for distribution -- but that's
when it meant manufacturing tons of plastic and vinyl and then shipping it to
thousands of record stores around the globe. In this case, there's no
manufacturing, and distribution is an "upload" button._

So streaming revenue can only be applied to streaming expenses, and can't be
used to offset the costs of physical production, advertising, tour
underwriting...? Presumably Mike Masnick also thinks that CD revenues were
never used to pay off the expenses of vinyl pressing or promotional swag. He's
probably also oblivious to the fact that many musical acts lose money and
until they become profitable any incoming revenue will be used to pay off
money advanced by the label. And the lowish (IMHO) payouts from services like
Spotify don't go as far as some other revenue sources when it comes down to
paying off the up-front expenses.

Is Mike Masnick really this stupid, or does he just like pandering to his
readers' ignorance? these statistics are _meaningless_ absent any context of
profit and loss for the labels. It's not that I love record labels, but
typically they are fronting the money for the production, marketing, and
sitribution and I don't think it's so weird that they prioritize recovering
their investment, like any other capitalist entity does. It's not like pop
singers and rock bands are going to have an IPO and sell shares direct to the
public.

