Reading · Blog by Steve Frenzel

Why I’m writing this

Lately, my YouTube feed has been filled with videos predicting the end of Spotify, discussing alternatives for users, and explaining how to better support artists even if you don’t buy physical recordings. I found this video particularly interesting: Get paid for your music… and screw Spotify in the process.

I’ve been a happy Tidal user for some time now, and for me there are two reasons why I no longer use Spotify and have started buying music on Bandcamp again:

Reason 1: Spotify does not pay artists fairly

To get a rough idea of how much money you can earn per platform and how many streams are required to do so, you can use the Reverse Royalty Calculator.

Unfortunately, there is no source indicating the basis on which these figures are calculated. However, after doing a little research, I found that the information corresponds with other reports.

Let’s take €1,000 in revenue for a song as an example. You would need the following number of streams on the respective platform:

Pandora: 817261 streams
Spotify: 319693 streams
Amazon Music: 255154 streams
Deezer: 193409 streams
Apple Music: 161031 streams
YouTube Music: 147885 streams
Tidal: 124082 streams
Napster: 64623 streams

Interestingly, Pandora requires more than twice the amount than Spotify. However, since Pandora does not even come close to having the same market share as Spotify, this does not cause such a big outcry.

The platform that has permanently changed the music industry by allowing music to be downloaded for free - Napster - pays the most per stream.

If you want to learn more about how much of the revenue ends up in Daniel Ek’s pocket, I recommend this video: Why Spotify’s CEO Is Worth Billions While Musicians Make Pennies.

Reason 2: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests in technology for killing people

He has invested nearly 700 million Euros of his wealth in the company Helsing, which has made ‘protecting our democracies’ its mission statement: Spotify’s Daniel Ek leads £694 million investment in defence start-up Helsing. Need I say more? I don’t think so.

What you can do today

Choose a streaming service that pays artists better than Spotify, such as Napster or Tidal. You can try these out for free and then decide whether you want to pay for them.

Transfer your music and playlists to your new streaming service. There are now several providers offering this service:

Create an account on Bandcamp to support artists directly. There you can buy not only digital music, but also physical recordings and merchandise. Every few months there is Bandcamp Friday, when 100% of all proceeds go to the artists and 0% to Bandcamp.

You can find my Bandcamp profile here, along with my collection and wish list.

A word on Bandcamp

Bandcamp’s back-to-back acquisitions—first by Epic Games in 2022, then by Songtradr in 2023—have its community feeling betrayed and concerned about the platform they once relied on. Bandcamp’s trajectory illustrates a depressing reality of the contemporary internet: platforms position themselves as artist-friendly alternatives, only to seemingly abandon their core values and community.

This quote comes from Subvert, an alternative platform where artists, labels and supporters are shareholders. Other alternatives include Catalytic Soundstream, Mirlo and Tone.

Supporting musicians in the digital age

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