Don't like the ride? You can get off. This attitude has always been an option when it comes to streaming, no matter how few people adopt it. I leave and try my own things often to encourage you to do the same.
My reactions to Tuesday's news about upcoming changes to the Spotify payout model, as reported by Music Business Worldwide:
- In hindsight, the status quo of every track being monetized immediately was optimistic, utopian even. YouTube doesn't do that for its channels: 4,000 hours of watch time, etc.
- Can we please have a no pay-per-stream 'rate' rule? As soon as you write about what one stream might pay on average, your article is dated and unhelpful. There are no fixed 'rates' at which you get paid 'per-stream'.
- Spotify and Deezer are taking different approaches. I'm glad the streaming services get to try different things from each other, because it's boring when they're all the same.
- Self-serve distribution services like DistroKid will hate this move, as Tim Ingham mentions in his report. That said, I doubt they can fight it. Streaming services wanna flex.
- Again: if we don't like Spotify, we can leave, and I bet we'll make some people happy if we try something new and different instead.