AfterDawn: News

Report: The record labels continue to leech all the money that should be going to artists, songwriters

Thanks to a new report from Ernst & Young in conjunction with French record label trade group SNEP, we can see that artists and songwriters continue to get screwed by the major record labels.

The report broke down where the money that consumers are paying towards Deezer and Spotify really goes; and it's not going into the artist's pockets.



Of the 9.99 euros that are paid for a premium subscription to either service, 46 percent goes to the labels, 21 percent goes to the actual platform (making sure Spotify stays up and running for example), 17 percent goes to tax, 10 percent goes to the songwriters and publishers and just 7 percent goes to the artists. For those keeping track, that's 70 cents going to the artists for every $10 that is brought in.

If you do not include taxes or platform costs, the chart looks even more embarrassing, with the labels taking 73 percent, songwriters taking 16 percent and artists getting 11. Pretty stark. These figures are not including the other fees and import royalties that many artists have built into their contracts even though digital music does not have returns or breakages.

Judging from this report it is very clear why artists like Taylor Swift have pulled their music from streaming services: it's just not worth it when the label is taking all of their money.




Source:
MBW

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 8 Feb 2015 10:03

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• 4 comments

• beanos66

  So everytime I download an album from usenet that is money not being spent on cocaine by record execs.

  8.2.2015 15:47 #1

• Mrguss

  Originally posted by beanos66: So everytime I download an album from usenet that is money not being spent on cocaine by record execs.
  +1
  

  Live Free or Die.
  The rule above all the rules is: Survive !
  Capitalism: Funnel most of the $$$ to the already rich.

  8.2.2015 16:20 #2

• scorpNZ

  It really is true the biggest pirates are the record labels even out stripping actual pirates..lol..
  

  http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/
  http://www.realmodscene.com/
  
  

  8.2.2015 18:59 #3

• Interestx

  Originally posted by scorpNZ: It really is true the biggest pirates are the record labels even out stripping actual pirates..lol.. ...as court cases for the last 4 decades show time after time.
  The record companies have a very long track record of stealing from & totally ripping off the artists.
  
  Personally I think the whole 'piracy' thing is sheer distraction, struggling (and therefore largely unknown) artists are not the target of downloaders, it is the record industry that has been vampires paying a laughable pittance out of every £/$ earned whilst bleating about the costs of 'investing' in new talent.
  This seems to equate to various awful TV shows churning out wannabes who sound & look like anyone else you ever saw in the past 3 - 5yrs, with a cynical detour to rehash 50's, 60's, 70'S & 80's sounds periodically thrown in.
  No wonder so many find so much contemporary music boring.
  

  12.2.2015 14:29 #4