Written By: Nick Lavkulik
What if I could give you an unlimited supply of any coffee in the world at a rate of one coffee per hour for $10 per month? Next, what if I told you all of the coffee you were drinking was made by full-time baristas earning only $2.50 per hour at most?
This is the relationship between Spotify and artists. Here is how it translates.
Spotify pays roughly $0.006 to $0.0084 per stream to each track’s music rights-holder(s). [1] The holder can be split between many parties, including the record label, producers, songwriters, and performing artists. [2] A 5-minute song streamed twelve times within an hour amounts to approximately 10 cents.
A barista can make a maximum of 25 cups of coffee an hour. [3] Now, what if I told you four of these baristas figured out a way to make more coffee? An avant-garde flavoured coffee.
That’s Vulfpeck.
Vulfpeck, an independent funk band, uploaded an album receiving 3.72 million streams, amounting to approximately $18,000. [4] The album was complete silence. This album is very similar to John Cage’s completely silent piece, 4’33”, which can currently be found on Spotify. [5]
Why did people listen to this album? Vulfpeck told their fans to listen to their album, Sleepify, on repeat as they slept to fund an admission-free tour for their fans. [6] Each track lasted about 30 seconds and was titled with varying amounts of the letter “Z”. [7] Vulfpeck accompanied its release with promotional materials, including tweets, such as, “please don’t ‘shuffle’ sleepify. i know this might come of snobbish, but we spent a lot of time on track order.” [8]
Initially, Spotify thought Vulfpeck’s actions were nothing more than a “clever stunt.” [9] However, after the album generated revenue, Spotify requested its removal for violating the terms and conditions [10] as “artificially increasing play counts.” [11]
After the album was pulled from Spotify, Jack Stratton, one of the members of Vulfpeck, made a recommendation for Spotify’s payment model. [12] Instead of splitting up the revenue based on the percentage of total streams on the platform, it should be per subscriber. [13] Each subscriber pays the same fee, despite how one subscriber may stream more than the next. This technically means each stream from subscribers who stream more, is worth less.
Do you think Vulpeck should have had Sleepify removed from Spotify, and applying the barista hypothetical, go back to making its equivalent of only $2.50 an hour? Should recorded music only exist as a promotional tool? Should Spotify’s ability to cut out the intermediate hoops to access music be considered? Is Spotify’s role even what we should be concerned about, since Spotify pays music holders 70% of the revenue it generates from the platform’s streams? [14] If not, is there something more fundamental but still practical to change for ensuring artists are properly compensated?
[1] Kabir Sehgal, Spotify and Apple Music should become record labels so musicians can make a fair living, CNBC (Jan. 26, 2018, 11:04 AM), https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/26/how-spotify-apple-music-can-pay-musicians-more-commentary.html#targetText=Here’s%20the%20math%3A%20Spotify%20pays,producers%2C%20artists%2C%20and%20songwriters.
[2] Id.
[3] Peter Holley, Baristas beware: A robot that makes gourmet cups of coffee has arrived, WASH. POST (Nov, 11, 2019), https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/03/22/baristas-beware-robot-that-makes-gourmet-cups-coffee-has-arrived/#targetText=The%20machine%20can%20make%20100,four%20baristas%2C%20the%20company%20says.
[4] Harley Brown, Spotify Removes Vulfpeck’s ‘Sleepify’, BILBOARD (April 26, 2014), https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6070030/spotify-removes-vulfpecks-sleepify.
[5] John Cage, 4’33” (The Sound Corporation 1991).
[6] Brown, supra note 4.
[7] Steve Knopper, ‘Silent Spotify Album’ Creator Talks Strategy Behind Unique Plan, ROLLINGSTONE (Mar. 21, 2014 2:45 PM), https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/silent-spotify-album-creator-talks-strategy-behind-unique-plan-244404/.
[8] Vulfpeck (@vulfpeck), TWITTER (Mar. 13, 2014, 1:00 PM), https://twitter.com/vulfpeck/status/443838924587155456.
[9] Brown, supra note 4.
[10] Id.
[11] Jack Stratton, Why Spotify Pays So Little, LIT.VULF (Mar. 15, 2015), http://lit.vulf.de/spotify-so-little/.
[12] Spotify Terms & Conditions of Use, SPOTIFY https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/end-user-agreement/#s8 (last visited Oct. 10, 2019).
[13] Stratton, supra note 11.
[14] Id.
