I have ~12 million listens across various streaming services
The great thing about bots is that they can listen to every song on file, 24/7/365, and you can spin up as many of them as you like. 12 million is nothing.
Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Wow. I’m a hobbyist musician. I have ~12 million listens across various streaming services and have made a whopping $45 in the two years since I finally released ~25 years worth of material. (Which is a lot of why it’s my hobby and not a living.)
I can’t imagine the numbers this guy had to pull off to make that much.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I have to wonder about the logistics. He can’t be running them on his own single Internet connection. Or could VPNs handle it so it would appear his listens are coming from all over the world? $10M is a lot of money. How long did it take to amass that?
NineMileTower@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Humble brag alert
Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 2 months ago
A little bit, for sure. Tempered harshly by the fact I’ve spent thousands of hours and thousands of units of cash on a hobby that paid me back $45. Good thing I don’t do it for the money!
NineMileTower@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I was just kidding. I’m very jealous. I’ve spent thousands and have nothing to show for it. Maybe a hundred bucks from live shows 20 years ago.
Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 2 months ago
That’s more than $45!
I got free beer at a show once 20+ years ago, too.
basskitten@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The most money I ever made in the music industry was being part of a class action lawsuit against MTV. Record sales and live shows are nothing.
lemmyingly@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Based on your numbers, ~260k plays per dollar. The person in the submission would have to get ~2600 billions plays to get $10 million.
Something does seem right with those numbers.
There are people on forums doing the same thing as the person in the submission. 1 person with ~30 phones can generate about 15-20k streams in a day doing it manually.
Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Maybe some kind of increasing scale for revenue depending on larger numbers of listens.
My break down by track is pretty inconsistent, too. I’ve got a single track with over a million listen that made me 36 cents. My most popular track has over 4M listens, and it’s responsible for half that $45. Distrokid doesn’t say which streaming service that revenue comes from, either. Some pay more than others, I imagine.
lemmyingly@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Do you pay them any money to have the songs on the platforms?
If not, I wonder if they charge you a fee but only deduct their fee from your earnings. So if you don’t get plays then they don’t ask for money. And the break even point is at around 1 million plays. Just a theory of course; I’m sure it’s all stated in the fine print.
Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I pay Distrokid ~$20 a year to distribute my music to a lot of streaming services, but I do not pay individual streaming services. I never really expected much return. I wasn’t disappointed! Haha!
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Send me a link and I can get you to ~12 million and 1 listens.
Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Searching my username should do it. Not sure what streaming services you’re subscribed to. It’s all on YouTube, too.
deltapi@lemmy.world 2 months ago
How obvious is it that it’s a bot?
Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Me? Honestly, I think it would be obvious to any discerning listener what music is actually made by a person, and what music is AI generated, but really, there’s so much music out there of wildly varying quality thanks to accessibility of production tools these days, it probably is literally impossible to tell the difference anymore.
can@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I’m not so sure anymore. Udio’s output is more obvious but Suno has gotten scarily good. I’ll still always crave the human element though and I make my music for myself.