75% of artists make a loss when they release music, research finds

Following PIRATE.COM’s research on the new Spotify update, it's been discovered that most artists are making a loss on their music releases. 

Spotify’s most recent update shows the platform undergoing “TikTokification”, a term referring to apps switching to focus on short-form video in an endless scrolling format, which TikTok is known for. 

This shift shows music becoming centred on video, which may benefit listeners but could potentially harm artists' revenue and exposure as the platform’s algorithm now rewards promotional videos. 

PIRATE.COM surveyed over 1,000 producers, live musicians, rappers, and MCs from its UK and US recording studios about how they’ll approach their next releases, finding that not only are many artists already making a loss from their music but that the loss is set to become greater with the platform’s shift to video. 

Photo: Dmitry Demidov / Pexels.com

The research found that 75% of musicians who spend money on promoting their music don’t make their money back, with 91% promoting their releases independently. 

As Spotify’s new update was so recent, 36% of artists were unsure about whether they would post a 30-second clip to promote their new release. 32% said they would use it, while 16% said they wouldn’t. 13% of the artists surveyed didn’t release music on Spotify. 

With Spotify’s shift to short-form video-focused content and promotion, it’s now even tougher for artists to make money on the platform. The introduction of streaming itself already almost entirely removes the possibility of smaller artists making money from their music, with one stream of a track amounting to a revenue of around only £0.006, according to MusicGateway. And that's before the money is split if the artist has multiple contributors, like a band. Artists now need to put even more money behind their music for a much smaller reward. 

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Header image credit: Ivan Samkov / Pexels.com