I hope all is well with you and yours.
 
I worked at AWAL as its U.S. SVP of Business Affairs from 2018-2023, and it was amazing to see how many indie artists at AWAL were earning real money while owning their recordings and controlling how and when they were released and licensed.  As an attorney, I can’t share details, but Kobalt’s founder, Willard Ahdritz, summed it up pretty well in 2020 in this and other articles: https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/hundreds-of-artists-are-now-earning-100k-per-year-via-kobalts-awal/.  (Sony bought AWAL in 2021 and, when I left two years ago, it was still very much the same company.)
 
As Willard said, there is a significant and growing "middle class" of artists who generate enough streams to net at least $100k/year.  This isn’t a myth or an urban legend.  These artists exist.  I’ve seen it with my own eyes. 
 
Based on average broad-stroke streaming "rates" (which are constantly evolving), it may take about 3,200,000 monthly streams for an artist to earn $100k/year.  While 3,200,000 may appear to be an intimidating number, that’s roughly the equivalent of 25,000 fans listening to a 15-track album just twice a week, or 100,000 fans listening just twice a month.  Most of these artists fly under the media’s radar because they build their fan bases primarily via digital marketing.  This simply would not have been possible pre-Spotify.
 
I’m not suggesting that Spotify is some kind of savior or can do no wrong.  They’re a business, after all, trying to maximize profit.  But, without Spotify and Apple Music and the other DSPs, there would be thousands of currently successful artists stranded on the outside looking in, as they were 30 years ago, trying to figure out how to get their songs played on terrestrial radio and how to secure shelf space for their new CDs at record stores.
 
Dan Stuart
General Counsel 
Seeker Music   

(You may have been one of the 25,000 subscribers who got this missive previously with a mistake, which has been corrected above. Here is the correction from Dan Stuart: "it may take about 3,200,000 monthly streams for an artist to earn $100k/year (not month)”)
______________________________________

We talked about this topic extensively when I did your podcast...and I still don't get why people don't get it.  The details are no more arcane and complex than they were in the physical distribution era (in fact, much of the business is simpler and cleaner) and the basic math is pretty simple. 

Ultimately, it's about ownership vs. loanership.  If you own your masters and publishing (as we do for the Presidents' debut) and have any traction with listeners, you're going to make money.  And more of it, in a more clearly accountable way than if you had to distribute physical product.  I.e., you get a monthly accounting from your digital distributor with transparent tracking of your usage and payments, versus a 100-page statement once or twice a year from a label or distributor, typically riddled with holdbacks and exceptions and other minor mechanisms designed to rip you off.  Ask any major label artist or indie label owner about this.  I know multiple former indie label owners who had good distribution deals in the physical era but in the end gave up, tired of dealing with inventory and getting the product out there and getting returns back, etc. 

And you are also right about artists' odd sense of entitlement.  The cream will rise to the top, and there's only so much cream.  Not to mention that it's impossible to predict what the cream will look and taste like...case in point, I have absolutely no freaking idea how a band as weird as ours could ever have possibly broken out, but it happened and it happens over and over.  

best,

Dave Dederer
______________________________________

Every time I speak at a conference, I have to re-explain this too.  Once a false narrative takes hold, it is very hard to change.  In every era, no matter the format or pricing model, regardless of genre, popular artists made a lot of money.

If you are popular, you make money.  If you are not, you complain.  

Scott Cohen


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=828178025010391a0f83cf7802ae715b

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=828178025010391a0f83cf7802ae715b