woah woah woah, chill bro goddamn. let’s sit and think about this. Record labels take pretty much all of the cut for streaming. Here is the chart showing what each service pays artists per song played. I used to think Napster was the best and subscribed to them for years, which is ironic considering their history Image
obviously the payout is going to vary widely but it’s common knowledge that for even the most played artists, the pay from this avenue sucks. they simply use these services to get their music to potential concert goers since that’s the income that record labels actually let artists keep. vinyls, merch, and usually tickets unless they REALLY get fucked over like child musician groups tend to.
If You have an interest in discovering just how shady that industry is, you should watch this essay about payola and how it’s literally more profitable for a musician to die than it release a certain number of future albums. I’m going to stick to pirating albums and using my cash to actually see the artists I love
Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
It’s still giving them SOMETHING, isn’t it?
Of course I’d prefer to buy directly from the artist (hence: Bandcamp), but that’s not the world we live in. Flat out piracy is just the worst of all the available options.
yesukwunt@thelemmy.club 2 days ago
Flat out piracy is the best of all available option. Boycott the major and support local independant artists insteas
Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
Why would I support local artists if an artist from abroad makes the music I love?
And, if their music is not available locally, nor they have a Bandcamp/similar account, how do I support them if not through streaming services?
yesukwunt@thelemmy.club 1 day ago
Idk go there?
sad_detective_man@leminal.space 2 days ago
it really isn’t though. I don’t really know where you live or how your local economy is organized but where I’m at people in my tax bracket are extracted for every ounce of raw money we can generate, both now but even speculatively in the future. it really doesn’t make sense to consider theft as a taboo against corporations since we are literally a resource that’s being exploited in real time for far much more than whatever artists would lose if we all stole.
.sopuli is a Finnish board right? my understanding is that you guys have way stronger social ethics and consumer protection, so yeah. in your world I probably would sign up for that Napster subscription again. or even better, a service actually from Finland. Bandcamp is good too.
here, though in the present we are have far worse things to worry about than theft. being tricked into defending the feelings of billionaires is a big one. letting corporations curate our education and media is another. but I hope you continue to have the life where you can engage with your economy in such a good intentioned way.
Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
This is such an “I’m 12 and a rebel” position to take…
Sure, corporate greed is a cancer, there’s zero doubt about that.
But these corporation also create jobs, make it possible for many people to survive. In terms of media streaming corpos SO MANY people/bands were allowed to have a career thanks to people just stumbling upon them.
Should they be getting paid more? Absolutely. Should the corpos handling the hardware, infrastructure, AND software be also paid? If you don’t believe that, you’re just naive or ignorant. Or both.
Or the French Qobuz.
Be the change you want to see. Instead of going stomping feet and stealing candy, go to the store that you feel you can morally support. Hard to do IRL, but online - sky is the limit. Use European services, those that pay artists (Qobuz pays around 5 times more than Spotify to rights holders), buy directly from artists on Bandcamp, etc., etc.
Piracy is literally the worst solution here because you’re taking without giving. Any “fight the corpo!” banner here is just extreme naivete because the artist will starve MUCH quicker than the corp.
sad_detective_man@leminal.space 2 days ago
yeeesh. I realize now that getting artists paid is obviously way less important to you than having somebody to verbally spar with. this is reductive and overall pretty naive to the actual experience of being in the workforce or trying to consume ethically.
instead of shouldering the responsibility of being your debate partner, I’m going to bow out and bid you a good life 👍 perhaps somebody else here would like to take turns quote tweeting and making character assessments with you.