In short, Spotify repeatedly did not believe who I said I was for a long time.
In my last round of proving that I am myself, this exchange was how I finally convinced them that I am myself.
And now I FINALLY have my artist account access!
Cheers,
Jayson
I thought that was only a struggle if somebody else was fighting you for your name. Are you going through something other than DK?
I think part of the problem likely lies in the fact that there’s a Filipino celebrity (who’s rather popular) who’s named, “Jason Abalos”, without a “y” in the first name.
I’m clearly not Filipino (points to avatar), and Jason Abalos also does exist on Spotify, so I think that maybe had something to do with it.
But that’s just my shot in the dark guess.
Not really sure, honestly.
I’m actually considering an entire artist rebrand just to avoid this in the future (I mean…I have over a hundred followers on Facebook who are almost entirely Filipino because they read my name).
Cheers,
Jayson
Sounds extremely likely. I got verified with my dumb / made up artist name in under 24 hours
Why would anyone want to be on spotify anyway? Don’t they like keep 99% of the $$$ and treat artists like shit?
Because even if you get not a lot, a) streaming is the new normal where most listeners are, b) youtube pays far far far less, and c) spotify pays alright for as far as streaming rates go but the real force of it is Amazon may pay more, but the traffic on spotify dwarfs others.
Cheers,
Jayson
Main point is accessibility. I treat it like if someone else uploads your music to, let’s say youtube, but instead it’s everywhere. Pay is poor (unless you’re a legit bro country rapper, I’m considering that) but that’s not a point here. Your music is in everyone’s reach. It’s there, waiting for listeners. So why the hell not?
Spotify is a big deal, you want it or not, grumpy losers can cry over it but it’s a fact. I end up using it more and more, I go through “fans also like” category and I continuously find so much good stuff it’s unbelievable. And I’m sure I’m not the only one that does that. If these artists weren’t on Spotify I wouldn’t ever know they exist, you see my point here? Sure, you can follow labels, bands and their members but this is like a shortcut that cuts all these corners. Similar approach can be applied with bandcamp.
To any musician/artist - just go for it. It’s like a stamp that you exist, don’t pretend being some underground bro, this idea lost its cool 20 years ago. You can be as obscure as you want on Spotify too but at least you’re online to gather these sweet sweet 2-3 listens a year.
Pre-spotify music taste: Yeah, Coldplay is good
Post-spotify: Have you heard Narcoleptic Disgorgent Vulvectomization yet?
To put Spotify rates in perspective. They pay 6 cents for around 150 plays. US Congress passed a law requiring streaming services to pay more and Spotify is fighting it. They don’t believe artists should be paid more than 6 cents if people listen to your song 150 times which is ridiculous. I could be a street performer (maybe I should) and I would be earning more money with $1 dollar only per song tip, than what spotify pays per stream.
Of all streaming services, Apple Music is the most fair, they at least have embraced the new law by congress without complains.
I’m actually still surprised there’s any payout at all. Maybe it’s worth buying a few spotify accounts and playing your own music on repeat so you can make your DK / Tunecore cost back
Spotify has machine learning algorithms that can identify likely artificial play patterns and flags the content, and then they block it. If it keeps happening, they ban.
Cheers,
Jayson
Spotify should pay more, sure - but more importantly, they should have better cross-posting for artists.
I look at spotify simply as reach. It’s the most used streaming platform right now, and with it’s friends/followers/playlists mechanic - you can get a lot of reach, but where does that go?
Right now, not really anywhere… unless someone really wants to support you through buying a physical copy or merch… but even on the spotify for artists page - it doesn’t include any way to link your bandcamp, bigcartel, or any other place where merch/physicals can be purchased.
For this reason I stand by bandcamp as the most profitable to the artist… I really wish bandcamp would introduce a streaming radio/style service that rivaled soundcloud and Spotify. The user library system and mobile use for bandcamp sucks right now.
Spotify isn’t for the artists though, it’s for the listeners. Look at all their marketing, everything they do, it is 100% focused on making life better for an ever larger pool of listeners. It’s pinpoint marketing and management on their part. They don’t claim to serve us as artists and everyone knows they don’t. If you’re dealing with spotify, it’s to get in the good graces of their audience and hope that a bit of that marketing and management joojoo rubs off on you. Personally, that doesn’t align with my strategy and/or I’m not ready to be on there yet.
However, this isn’t actually a good thing to go by in my book because if someone will pay you $2.00 per stream play, but they have a user base of 50 users…so what?!
By that count, Spotify kicks up over other options, but ultimately, to me…none of this is really worth much unless you have a very large following and are pretty far up in the zeitgeist of culture.
Streaming is essentially a way to give your music away - a way to get it out there for discovery, but it’s not where you are likely going to make your money.
Hell, it’s not even where the music industry is really raking in their money anymore (selling the music content itself, that is).
It’s mostly about tours and merchandise now. We’ve gone full circle back to 1960.
The music existing in a way that people can hear it isn’t THE point, or the way you model to make your money. Music is the content that you use to market your brand so that you can sell the brand.
That’s where we’re at. Even youtubers run this way - plugging events and merchandise constantly in their videos, and music is really no different at this point than a youtube stream of content.
We live in a world where there is far more people shoving music out than ever before, and to such an extent that it’s literally impossible to even come close to hearing 1% of everything that’s being pushed out. Every artist has to basically realize that there’s effectively ZERO demand for them. They are not interesting. There’s millions and millions of “you” in the eyes of the consumer, and there’s no motive for the gneral consumer to pay you directly because they have streaming applications that give them access to pretty much whatever they want anytime they want it.
It’s been at least a decade since I payed for music myself, and I’m very unlikely to buy any music anytime soon.
You basically do it for a hobby, or you hustle like hell and sell yourself and hop that social media wagon and get yourself out there and in front of people, and get interesting as an act - the music basically is the thing you talk about and what creates a little culture around you; not what makes you money. Not anymore.
So in this context and way of thinking, the streaming service that has the widest reach and best propagation of your music to listeners is the best one to use.
Cheers,
Jayson
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Merch. Merch. Merch. And vinyl, people love that now - and arguably the most popularly physical sold format. Definitely back to the 60’s.
Also…for the record…it’s not like Radio pays out the money like crazy.
The rate for radio is an average of around $0.0000955 per play to a songwriter, last public records that were pushed out a few years back.
That’s basically a million + subscribers to get $100 as a songwriter.
mmm.
Cheers,
Jayson
I say we go full Alex Jones with IDMV[itamins] - Your friendly pack of daily helpful pills for the experimental electronic musician: a lot of vitamin b12 and iron to keep you active for long sessions of bleeps and bloops, some magnesium against headaches from listening to the same loop for 12 hours, and vitamin d against the morning after review depression…
