9 Depressing Spotify Stats

[zxcvbnm098]

Stats shared by Spotify over the last few weeks show just how difficult it is to build an audience and a career in music.

 

⢠60,000 â the number of tracks uploaded to Spotify every day

 

⢠70 million â the number of tracks currently available on Spotify

 

⢠4.5 billion â the number of Spotify playlists

 

⢠50,000 â the hours of content uploaded to Spotify daily

 

⢠5 years â the length of time it would take you to listen to the content uploaded to Spotify in a single day.

 

⢠2 million â the number of podcasts vying for attention on Spotify

 

⢠8 million â the number of creators on the platform

 

⢠50 million â the number of creators Spotify predicts will be on the platform by 2025

 

⢠17 million - The estimated number of tracks on Spotify that have not been played once

[nursers]

Depressing indeed but sadly not surprising. I like to think my podcast is in the top 1.99 million

[Morizzle]

A study by France"s Centre National de la Musique this year found that 10% of all revenues from Spotify and Deezer go to just 10 artists.

 

A single sentence that illustrates what a mind-blowingly fudged up system we've set up. Thank God I can listen to Celine Dion anywhere anytime, though!

 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/mar/03/soundcloud-announces-overhaul-of-royalties-model-to-fan-powered-system

[KuruPrionz]

Fishing for minnows with no bait on the hook.

[Song80s]

SoundCloud reaches 175 million people every month.

 

The app officially has 76 million monthly users.

 

In total, SoundCloud has more than 272 million users in 2019.

 

320 million global listeners were active on SoundCloud in 2017.

 

SoundCloud users have access to more than 200 million tracks.

 

More than 20 million SoundCloud creators share their music.

[[ yes, thats me somewhere in there }

[mauriziodececco]

[[ yes, thats me somewhere in there }

 

Me too. I also chose to activate Repost by Soundcloud, with the interesting results of getting reports of zero (0) monthly listening from all the major music distribution platforms.

Not exactly motivating .

 

Maurizio

[Song80s]

[[ yes, thats me somewhere in there }

 

Me too. I also chose to activate Repost by Soundcloud, with the interesting results of getting reports of zero (0) monthly listening from all the major music distribution platforms.

Not exactly motivating .

 

Maurizio

 

LOL. I know. I also promote on SC. I also have 3 sales on iTunes of my album. Woo-hoo.

 

The minuscule income is not worth that effort IMO.

 

Just the same, I continue to promote on SC. I figure its positive to continue building a listener base.

[Sam Mullins]

Stats shared by Spotify over the last few weeks show just how difficult it is to build an audience and a career in music.

 

⢠60,000 â the number of tracks uploaded to Spotify every day

 

⢠70 million â the number of tracks currently available on Spotify

 

⢠4.5 billion â the number of Spotify playlists

 

⢠50,000 â the hours of content uploaded to Spotify daily

 

⢠5 years â the length of time it would take you to listen to the content uploaded to Spotify in a single day.

 

⢠2 million â the number of podcasts vying for attention on Spotify

 

⢠8 million â the number of creators on the platform

 

⢠50 million â the number of creators Spotify predicts will be on the platform by 2025

 

⢠17 million - The estimated number of tracks on Spotify that have not been played once

 

And yet there is a large contingent of my generation that will say "there is no good music being made today" ...which given the above is highly unlikely. Finding the good stuff is a different matter of course.

 

For people who are engaged, it's a golden era. You can pay $10 per month to your streaming service of choice and listen to anything without further investment. That's a good thing for expanding people's musical palette.

[Song80s]

[quotonce

 

And yet there is a large contingent of my generation that will say "there is no good music being made today" ...which given the above is highly unlikely. Finding the good stuff is a different matter of course.

 

e.

 

That is accurate. The subjective " good music " is somewhat buried.

 

SC, which i know fairly well is saturated with daily new music.

 

Daily new music of all types, styles, etc etc.

 

Serious Creators have to navigate the SC venue, promote promote, use various tools to have some chance of standing out in the 20 million creator crowd.

[Docbop]

It's just what the game is be it music, acting, sports, and other career paths. Just look around at how many try to get into those careers and how few make have any success and even fewer that make it big. Career management is something most getting in the biz don't think about. As Ray Parker Jr said in a clinic I got him to do... He said you go up and you plateau at that point you need to switch paths to keep moving up or be prepared to start your slide down. He talked about how many points in his career he switched paths still within the music biz. Playing in bands, playing in touring bands, getting into studio work, getting into songwriting, starting own band and recording. going solo and recording, getting into production. switching from R&B to Jazz and so on. Each one of those path were at a point to change direction or start to fall.

 

Hardest thing I've watched is young musicians have to do realize music is a business deal with it or get out. Even for the "Artist" types it's a business in order to pay the bills.

[ProfD]

Spotify provides an example of the realities of technology. Anybody can produce content i.e. music. That hasn't changed ever since folks could access musical instruments, play, perform and record music.

 

Before Spotify, there were plenty coasters, er, CDs that were recorded and unsold. Beyond producing and recording, music has to be "sold".

 

Building an audience remains unchanged. Music has to be marketed and promoted i.e. "presented" in order to grab the attention of listeners.

 

Artists and musicians still have to be creative in drawing ears and eyes to their product.

[Song80s]

Spotify

 

Artists and musicians still have to be creative in drawing ears and eyes to their product.

 

Yes. Plus promotion is expensive. I think its a big part of gaining notoriety.

[zxcvbnm098]

https://forgotify.com/ will play you a never-before-heard track from Spotify.

[jazzpiano88]

Stats shared by Spotify over the last few weeks show just how difficult it is to build an audience and a career in music.

 

I see it as the opposite. Now you have a market size of 4 billion people to target. Before, it was zero unless you got chosen by a major label.

[Baldwin Funster]

Back in the ancient days of the mighty vinyl there were hundreds and thousands of records pressed that never made it big. Now with the YouTube sometimes somebody will upload something that was only a pressing of a few hundred or so and you will say that was pretty good, I wonder why they never made it big. The odds were long then and many times longer now. One in a million or one in a hundred million. Both are long shots.

[Docbop]

Stats shared by Spotify over the last few weeks show just how difficult it is to build an audience and a career in music.

 

I see it as the opposite. Now you have a market size of 4 billion people to target. Before, it was zero unless you got chosen by a major label.

 

 

But also now you are starting off going up against new artist from around the globe and not just others in your hometown. The internet has changed all the rules in how everything we do we're competing globally to do it. On the plus side we are getting to experience and learn about things new and old on a global level. I love I can get music lessons or in music discussions now with people from all over the globe. So internet great for learning and see life from many points of view, but tough now competing for in a GIGANTIC marketplace.

[Song80s]

Stats shared by Spotify over the last few weeks show just how difficult it is to build an audience and a career in music.

 

I see it as the opposite. Now you have a market size of 4 billion people to target. Before, it was zero unless you got chosen by a major label.

 

I include Martians and Venusians - more like 5 billion

[Dave Weiser]

These are mind-blowing stats!

 

I do think it's helpful to remember that back in the day, the revenue from most record sales went to record companies, while artists made most of their money by playing live shows. That's sort of how it is today - most acts, great and small, earn their income from touring and live shows.

 

I do miss the curation provided by rock radio stations back in the 70s and 80s, it's how I discovered some of my favorite albums, like Close to the Edge and Trick of the Tail, as a kid. Of course nowadays the classic rock stations have become the "Bob Seger/Bad Company" channel. But on the bright side, we now have gazillions of options for hearing old gems from any genre on satellite radio and even more chances to discover cool new stuff on Youtube.

 

People do still seem to like live music...and hopefully they'll appreciate it even more after being stuck indoors for the past year!

[Song80s]

I am a serious, persistent song writer. There are a few on KC.

 

I am getting non financial satisfaction from

 

my " Mighty Moderna " which is Song #3 on my Profile, it is picking up listens:

 

 

I uploaded it to SoundCloud 20 days ago.

 

It has over 10,600 listens.

 

It is my most listened original.

[Docbop]

I am a serious, persistent song writer. There are a few on KC.

 

I am getting non financial satisfaction from

 

my " Mighty Moderna " which is Song #3 on my Profile, it is picking up listens:

 

 

Time for a My Sharona remake. There was on remake back in the day called "Slide Trombone-A". It was like 8 trombone players and a rhythm section. Now you can make "My Monderna".

[jazzpiano88]

I am a serious, persistent song writer. There are a few on KC.

 

I am getting non financial satisfaction from

 

my " Mighty Moderna " which is Song #3 on my Profile, it is picking up listens:

 

 

I uploaded it to SoundCloud 20 days ago.

 

It has over 10,600 listens.

 

It is my most listened original.

 

I like the overall theme. Is there a reason you changed from straight 4 to hip hop syncopation after the 2:00 mark?

[Song80s]

I am a serious, persistent song writer. There are a few on KC.

 

I am getting non financial satisfaction from

 

my " Mighty Moderna " which is Song #3 on my Profile, it is picking up listens:

 

 

Time for a My Sharona remake. There was on remake back in the day called "Slide Trombone-A". It was like 8 trombone players and a rhythm section. Now you can make "My Monderna".

 

thats funny . You would need my permission. Only on KC would we discuss My Sharona.

[Song80s]

I am a serious, persistent song writer. There are a few on KC.

 

I am getting non financial satisfaction from

 

my " Mighty Moderna " which is Song #3 on my Profile, it is picking up listens:

 

 

I uploaded it to SoundCloud 20 days ago.

 

It has over 10,600 listens.

 

It is my most listened original.

 

I like the overall theme. Is there a reason you changed from straight 4 to hip hop syncopation after the 2:00 mark?

 

 

Very good, thanks, I appreciate your ear picking up on the change.

 

A few answers,,it felt right, in that I felt the song needed a changeup.

 

And the gentle 2:00 part sets up the funky section/chord progression at 2:32

[ABECK]

Given this model and trajectory, on a long enough timeline, will the music industry die?

As artists can now write, record, publish, market and distribute on their own, I would have thought the model would have changed completely by now. But it still seems there is a need for artists to rely on the monster distribution channels that pay them pennies on the millions of plays. (not that there aren't folks out there making a good go of it completely independently). I can't help but wonder what the shelf life of this current model is.

 

Maybe getting paid to play live will make a comeback!

[GRollins]

What is missing from the equation is a workable system for editing (being an author, I think of magazine editors), or to use today's parlance, "curating." You need someone with a consistent view and with taste to filter the wheat from the chaff. NOT someone with an "it's all good" mindset. That's stupid. It's not "all good." A lot of it's terrible. Actually, it would require dozens of editor/curators, each specializing in a genre or sub-genre. There's a market there. People would pay to have someone they could trust to find things they liked.

 

Imagine the Internet without Google. There's a lot of information out there, but finding it without a search engine would be next to impossible. We need a Google for music.

 

It might be too big a job for humans; might take an AI, but then you'd have to train it and that would be a bear.

 

It's not for lack of material. It's for lack of finding stuff that's actually worth your time to listen to. The times that I've dipped a toe in those waters, I consistently found myself drowning in a sea of mediocrity. It simply wasn't worth my time to listen to hours and hours and hours of uninspired crap in the hopes of finding something I actually could get excited about. I don't doubt that it's out there, but getting to it...that's another question.

 

Yes, what I'm describing is essentially parallel to the recording industry as it exists today, but with a side channel. You'd have a choice--pay someone to locate the good stuff, or (and this is where the difference lies) if you have the time and patience (I don't) you could access the raw data representing the incoming music from the hopefuls and make your own choices.

 

We're drowning in music, but if you're honest you'll have to admit that a lot of it isn't worth the bits it's recorded on. Weed out the worst and discard it entirely. Put the mid-level stuff out on one channel and the top-flight stuff on another channel and you might have a workable system. The way things are now, it's only going to get worse and worse and worse...

 

Grey

[Song80s]

Given this model and trajectory, on a long enough timeline, will the music industry die?

As artists can now write, record, publish, market and distribute on their own, I would have thought the model would have changed completely by now. But it still seems there is a need for artists to rely on the monster distribution channels that pay them pennies on the millions of plays. (not that there aren't folks out there making a good go of it completely independently). I can't help but wonder what the shelf life of this current model is.

 

Maybe getting paid to play live will make a comeback!

 

True, artists have that creative control. But they don't have much control in the digital media.

 

There is tonnage content, saturation. Assorted obstacles to establishing a presence that produces return.

 

The digital media venues are setting the terms and have established control and working their distribution.

 

I see this continuing, this year and next.

 

As far as 2023, I don't know of anyone who can accurately predict this far out.

[ProfD]

Given this model and trajectory, on a long enough timeline, will the music industry die?

 

Maybe getting paid to play live will make a comeback!

 

What is missing from the equation is a workable system for editing (being an author, I think of magazine editors), or to use today's parlance, "curating." You need someone with a consistent view and with taste to filter the wheat from the chaff. NOT someone with an "it's all good" mindset.

 

 

Yes, what I'm describing is essentially parallel to the recording industry as it exists today, but with a side channel. You'd have a choice--pay someone to locate the good stuff, or (and this is where the difference lies) if you have the time and patience (I don't) you could access the raw data representing the incoming music from the hopefuls and make your own choices.

IMO, the music industry will never die because to Grey's point, it serves as the "curator" or "filter" of what "should be" the most popular music in different genres.

 

I believe in a post-pandemic world, regardless of the genre/style of music, live performance will separate the chaff from the wheat. Artists and musicians will have to "perform" in order draw enough listeners to make music their livelihood. Recordings alone won't cut it.

[mauriziodececco]

More seriously, i think:

 

1) Exactly because of what said above, most of the (small) artists do not actually need big distributors; the technical infrastructure i personally own is largely enough to provide streaming for the 400 listening i got on SoundCloud.

It wouldn't be too complex to use distributed technologies to provide a community streaming service to most but the most listened artists; there is some open source software project working on the technical side of the problem.

 

2) The real point, said above, is curation, discovery, structuring the content and providing a way to find things to people.

As many of the people in this forum, i come from the times where Internet (or even before, networks) meant organised communities, and not multinationals.

For exemple, this forum is for me the most important source of 'cured music suggestions'; i carefully avoid suggestions given by any stupid algorithms in common platforms.

 

Essentially, i believe that is possible, using Internet today, to create an independent, quality focused, community based and community owned, technical and social infrastructure dealing with music distribution.

I am also convinced that this structure will never be better of a big pizza for feeding a family anyway, so it would not be a substitute for a professional activity; but i think it could be a lot more motivating and close to what music actually is that publishing on Internet Giant site.

 

Well, i would be happy to provide my competences (technical competences, not musical to reach such an objective

 

Maurizio

[zxcvbnm098]

Given this model and trajectory, on a long enough timeline, will the music industry die?

As artists can now write, record, publish, market and distribute on their own, I would have thought the model would have changed completely by now. But it still seems there is a need for artists to rely on the monster distribution channels that pay them pennies on the millions of plays. (not that there aren't folks out there making a good go of it completely independently). I can't help but wonder what the shelf life of this current model is.

 

Maybe getting paid to play live will make a comeback!

 

The way the industry is going, it favors the owners of large catalogs of content. The reason the (now 3) major labels are being valued so high is that they own, and continue to grow, their already enormous catalogs of popular music. And what has changed for them is that, unlike the days of physical product that was susceptible to seasonal buying trends, they are now getting paid every month a consistent revenue stream. The music "business" is alive and well, and will continue to grow as each successive generation of music consumers gets used to paying a monthly fee for unlimited use of most (but certainly not all) of the recorded music ever made.

 

What's changing in the business of music if the notion that a musician only creates music, when the current batch of successful independent artists think outside the box by having YouTube channels, doing private shows for super fans, creating interesting and unique merchandise, working with other like artists to "base swap", and providing a continuous stream of products to maintain and grow their fanbase. It's hard work, but it puts them much more in control of their careers.

 

But live will always be the driver for most artists, and even heritage acts are staying on the road well into their 70's because the money is so good (once we're back to normal at least). I saw Deep Purple a few years back at my local county fair. They were great, but I know their guarantee was around $75K for a show like that. So assuming each guy took him about $10K each that night, you can see why they and other stay out.

[GRollins]

Playing live is not an option in my area. It's damned slim pickin's for a copy band and there are absolutely zero options for original material. Viewing live performances as a way to sort the weak from the strong in a Darwinian sense simply will not work--at least in this neck of the woods (the nearest reasonable music markets are over two hours away, so that's over four hours on the road, minimum, and likely hotel charges unless you expect to get home, unpack, and go to bed at dawn--that burns both time and money). If you want to do original material it's traditional demo-to-the-record-company, Internet, or die. Period. But the current Internet strategy isn't workable, either. There's no money to be made. I keep reading stories about established bands who make ten cents a month because all the profits keep getting Hoovered up by Spotify, et. al. That's all well and fine for the CEO of the company, but it doesn't do anything for the artists fueling the engine. And when there's no profit for the band, there's no effective feedback to tell them what's working and what's not working because if a good song makes zilch and a bad song makes zilch, how do they know where to direct their energy?

 

In a live setting, you can gauge what's working by the audience's reaction, but when there's a plastic wall between you and your listener, their reaction doesn't make it back through your monitor. For that matter, they might not even listen when you're awake, or at home. There's a complete disconnect between the listener and you. They might go so far as to type in "You rock, man!" in a comments section, but then again...they might not. You don't even know if they're there the way you would in a concert venue. You can't make eye contact. You can't make any sort of real time connection. If they type a note to you at 4 AM and you type a response at 7:30 PM, then there's no momentum. You might as well snail mail letters to each other for all the heat you'll generate. There's no substitute for real, live sweaty music that's happening in front of real, starry-eyed listeners.

 

Or, failing that, album sales.

 

"Views" are thin gruel. You can't pay bills with views and you can't tell how people feel about what they heard.

 

And in the background, the CEO buys a new Mercedes. You, on the other hand, might make enough to buy a stick of gum.

 

Maybe.

 

Grey