Cafe Announcements 📣 Campaign / petition to fix streaming - make it fair for musicians

[Pete Thomas]

See here for the petition:

Change the law to fix music streaming

It's time to change the laws around streaming services so that musicians get their fair share! Join me in signing to Musicians' Union petition to fix streaming!

www.megaphone.org.uk

NB: although this is started by the UK Musicians Union, the issue affects musicians internationally. The petition itself does appear it can be signed by people outside the UK

Anyone who knows of other campaigns/petitions around the world please post them here.

 

[GCinCT]

I signed. This is important.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I signed. This is important.

Yes, it's huge. It's actually triggered me to go back to a previous role I had in the Union on the writers section.

 

[Ghr9204]

Clicked on the link but got this message, they are off-line:

 

[mizmar]

Oops! Maybe a bigger response then the site had bargained for!

 

[mizmar]

Oops! Maybe a bigger response then the site had bargained for!

Well, it's a 6 month old petition... So not that.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Well, it's a 6 month old petition... So not that.

Actually it could be a sudden hit because an email campaign just went out, that’s how I found it and posted.

 

[Ghr9204]

The site is now on-line.

 

[progger]

Signed. Thank you for posting about this, Pete.

 

[Jeanette]

Signed

 

[Wade Cornell]

Done...

 

[Celeste]

just signed it!

 

[lig]

Done. None of the streaming services pay well but apparently Apple Music pays the musicians considerably more than Spotify and the Spotify boss seems like an absolute jerk.

I’ve been buying CDs and T-shirts directly from the artists when possible.

Re streaming:

<Apple Music generally pays significantly higher per-stream royalties than Spotify, often around $0.01 compared to Spotify's $0.003-$0.005>

 

[skeller047]

Likewise signed.

 

[skeller047]

Done. None of the streaming services pay well but apparently Apple Music pays the musicians considerably more than Spotify and the Spotify boss seems like an absolute jerk.

I’ve been buying CDs and T-shirts directly from the artists when possible.

Re streaming:

<Apple Music generally pays significantly higher per-stream royalties than Spotify, often around $0.01 compared to Spotify's $0.003-$0.005>

I agree about Apple Music, and I like it too because of their dedication to high quality compression. And the fact they support various Spatial Audio formats - hearing something on the far right from a phone speaker is remarkable.

That said, streaming revenue to musicians is still criminally small.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I agree about Apple Music, and I like it too because of their dedication to high quality compression. And the fact they support various Spatial Audio formats - hearing something on the far right from a phone speaker is remarkable.

That said, streaming revenue to musicians is still criminally small.

I think the royalties from streaming mostly go to the featured artist and composer. The campaign (I think) is also about the fact that a royalty of approx 0.000% goes to any non-featured artists, ie the session musicians.

I'll do some more checking on this if the MU are happy to have be back on board on one of their special "councils"

 

[Pete Thomas]

Re streaming:

<Apple Music generally pays significantly higher per-stream royalties than Spotify, often around $0.01 compared to Spotify's $0.003-$0.005>

This says otherwise, with Tidal being the "best"

Spotify is 0 due to not hitting their threshold of 1000 streams 🙁

There is probably an issue anyway as the Artist is supposed to be listed as Pete Thomas and Lee Allen.

 

[Jimmymack]

Dunnit. Although I might have already signed it months ago and I had expected it to have been submitted to somebody, somewhere by now. Every time I'm asked to sign one of these I do. I live in hope of some result.

 

[lig]

This says otherwise, with Tidal being the "best"

Spotify is 0 due to not hitting their threshold of 1000 streams 🙁

There is probably an issue anyway as the Artist is supposed to be listed as Pete Thomas and Lee Allen.
View attachment 32399

Luckily for me I don’t depend upon music for my existence . If that were the case I’d be homeless. 😀

I have no direct evidence of how it works in real life but more than one full time musician has mentioned to me that Spotify was absolutely horrible and Apple Music was better and merch/CDs/tour revenue was far better for them than streaming revenue.

These are contemporary jazz artists if the genre makes a difference.

With jazz being essentially as unpopular as kids music and classical music - I’m sure it isn’t easy for anyone but pop stars to make serious money.

I’ve never heard of Tidal other than seeing their name on various comparisons of who pays what.

 

[Ghr9204]

Luckily for me I don’t depend upon music for my existence . If that were the case I’d be homeless. 😀

That is why I stayed on as a reservist with the Army Reserve Bands, after my first full time service with the Army Bands in Hawaii. (Tough duty, but someone had to do it, especially in that warm balmy sub-tropical weather.) 😉

Spoiler: A weekend a month

(Saturday & Sunday), got 4 days pay for 2 days work, plus access to the shopping facilities on the military bases at discount (sort of like shopping at Costco or Sam's Club in US) and their recreational facilities (gymnasium, swimming pool, track - for jogging, etc.)

Plus 2 weeks full-time each year usually in Summer, we normally assumed the jobs of an active band allowing them to take their "blanket leave" - band takes leave at same time so can stay intact during performance time without missing instrumentalists.

Stuck with it 21 years (20 to be vested for retirement, did an extra year just in case they miscalculated), at age 60 start collecting the reserve retirement (called Non-Regular, pay usually less because of lessened participation over full-time) with medical plan. (With 3 years full-time and rest reservist weekends, got 16.5% of base pay versus 50% for the full timers.)

Plus we had a lot of excellent players (not a rinky-dink band). What did we do on weekends? Rehearse and jobs. It was sort of like, "They actually pay me to do this!"

The band's idea of bivouac was the Fairfield Inn (Marriot's economy motel, for out-of-town jobs).