At Spotify’s 2021 year-end conference, the world’s most used streaming platform, Daniel Ek, said that the platform he leads is approaching 11 million creators, most of whom are artists. That’s an increase of three million compared to a year.
If the number of artists offering their music on listening platforms continues to increase, only a small part of them can make a living from it. Especially young artists, who for the most part do not I do not know how to get there
subsidies and aid, testifies Henzy. Interview with the editor of a media specialized in the music industry rap sales .
How does streaming pay artists?
In general, streaming pays artists in two different ways. Either through paid subscriptions or through advertising. Artists are paid in proportion to their number of works. The streaming platform (Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal or Deezer, editor’s note) will take the billing for all subscriptions and divide it by the total number of streams in the artist’s country each month.
What are your other sources of income?
As additional sources of income, there are obviously concerts or merchandising, through the sale of clothing and other derivative products and, more recently, the creation of exclusive content through NFT. There is also Sacem, for copyright, which brings together everything that includes radio or television broadcasts, but also a section on streaming and concerts.
Apart from Sacem, what other structures can pay or subsidize artists?
Sacem is a collective management entity responsible for collecting royalties from French-speaking authors/composers registered with the society. Other organizations respond to specific needs. For almost all kinds of artistic creations, there is a dedicated company. This can be the Estafa (civil society of multimedia authors) or for example the SEAM (society of musical authors and publishers). They are scholarships that most artists, especially the younger ones, are unaware of or do not know how to obtain.
In music, there are four main ones. Sacem, SCPP (civil society of phonographic producers), Adami (civil society for the administration of performers’ rights) and Spedidam (society for the collection and distribution of performers’ rights). These companies grant grants and aid to musical creation to finance projects. Therefore, they are very important for artists to collect their rights, but also as a relay for creation.
“Young artists must be surrounded”
How to benefit from these grants?
You must first be registered with the company in question. Then complete a file so you can benefit from it. These grants are usually pretty easy to come by, but most artists don’t even know they exist. There is an information asymmetry problem.
Does this problem especially affect young artists?
Exactly, the old backpackers of the French song will more easily know how to recover these subsidies while the young artists will not even have the reflex to register in society. In order to obtain these grants, it is often necessary to have your own stamp or company and, therefore, those who do not have one cannot access them. This is usually the case for young artists who are starting out in music and still need to structure themselves and become professional.
Accompanied by a manager is then essential for them?
Nowadays, an artist is obliged to have someone by his side to help him on all sides. It’s very difficult being an independent artist and having to focus on music and everything else at the same time. Businesses take a lot of time, be it for promotion, marketing, administrative management. These are specific areas that are difficult to compare with an artistic career. Young artists need to be surrounded by someone who understands both art and capitalism very well.