The debate over streaming is set to continue at least until the next big evolution in music distribution. At the centre of the debate is, naturally, monetisation, a controversial topic when it comes to streaming.
Some blame streaming services for devaluing music and offering low payouts to artists, while others blame major labels for signing contracts with streaming services that benefit only them and leave artists out in the cold.
So who to believe? Well, you might want to ask Perrin Lamb what the real deal is. Perrin is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter who recently came to prominence thanks to a New York Times profile detailing his career.
Perrin is a completely independent musician, having never signed a deal with a label. While that might seem as though his career is going nowhere, Perrin recently earned more than $40,000 thanks to a single song.
As The New York Times reports, Perrin’s song ‘Everyone’s Got Something’ was included on Spotify’s popular ‘Your Favorite Coffeehouse’ playlist, racking up streams by the millions – some 10 million to be more precise.
The NYT article went on to explain how the wholly independent Perrin distributes his music through CD Baby, which charges its customers $49 to carry an album, as well as a nine percent cut of digital income from stores like iTunes and Spotify.
The arrangement nets artists like Perrin a much higher percentage of revenue from music than they would earn through a typical record label contract. Best of all, Perrin is the sole rights holder of his music.
Perrin is an example of a growing class of musicians who may not be superstars — he still has a day job, which we’ll get to in a second — but still earns a considerable income from streaming, and not just from Spotify.
See, Perrin may have gotten lucky by being included on a very popular Spotify playlist, but his day job represents the real future of independent music. The royalties he’s received from Spotify only offer “a little safety”.
“I think these success stories need to get more attention than they do.”Perrin works day-to-day at Sorted Noise, a Nashville firm that specializes in placing songs in television and the movies. “I’m the montage where the guy is walking away in the rain and the girl is crying,” he told the NYT.
“I think these success stories need to get more attention than they do,” writes Josh Collum, Co-Founder and Partner at Sorted Noise, in a new op-ed for Music Business Worldwide defending streaming as a revenue stream.
“Perrin’s profile in The New York Times was a good start,” Collum continues, “but we need to see more. These artists don’t have 10 million Twitter followers. They don’t get asked to speak on Capitol Hill.”
“And they don’t appreciate it when major artists and songwriters, who have completely different business structures from independent artists, say, ‘I’m speaking for the up and coming, unsigned artist or songwriter.'”
“The reality is: Spotify consistently pays out around 70% of their total earnings to copyright owners. They state it pretty clearly on their website in a section aptly titled, ‘How We Pay Royalties…'”
“The key here is, are you the rights holder, or is a record label and/or publisher? Because that’s who’s receiving the 70%. If a writer or artist isn’t seeing the money, the answer to their question can probably be found within their label or publisher contract.”
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“It seems to me, that in order to truly address a problem we must fully understand it. And to fully understand it, we can’t just hear the horror stories. We should hear the success stories too,” he adds.
“So, that’s why I wrote this piece: to show a different perspective on streaming. To be clear, just because Spotify exists doesn’t mean that you’re going to get millions of streams and make tons of money. The quality of your art still matters. Now more than ever.”
“But, having said that, it isn’t unique or an anomaly to find true success through streaming either. As a songwriter and artist myself, I’ve personally seen royalty checks go from hundreds of dollars a quarter to tens of thousands from YouTube alone.”
“Now, we work with dozens of artists with similar stories. One just bought her first house. Another made thousands from Spotify while still in college (I don’t know about you, but I had to deliver pizzas for my beer money).”
“We are still in the infant stages of this digital migration, and there are already thousands and thousands of true success stories like Perrin’s. There are already artists and songwriters that are figuring out how to build strong, agile businesses for this new age.”
