@sharky Convincing labels is a mission impossible. They will do all they can to defend their current privilege: a percentage of Spotify revenues based on market share regardless of the # of streams. We need to make sure Spotify does more than giving thought. In the near future labels will fully rely on streaming and Spotify could be the one who sets the rules.

@sharky I just found that this idea has been posted at the Spotify Community Forum some time ago, with a disappointing outcome http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/Artist-rewarding-scheme/idi-p/522076

@Sharky I love your idea. With you all the way. As soon as a streaming service implements this I will immediatly cancel my Spotify account and subscribe. My money should go to the artists I listen to.

Thanks David for sharing these data. Maybe Hypebot can post a bigger version of the screenshot so we get the bigger picture.

Natalia, I can confirm that artists sometimes get lower rates than $.005. It all depends on your digital distributor/aggregator and if your song was streamed by a Free, Unlimited , Mobile or Premium user. Over the past few years I have been collecting and studying Royalty Statements from several artists and aggregators. You can check them at http://www.spotidj.com/spotifyroyalties.htm David probably uses an aggregator that pays a fixed rate for all streams in a specific month. Zimbalam/Believe Digital does this. CDbaby has confusing statements with a set of rates that I still cannot explain. Have a look at the statement from Catapult. This aggregator has statements with about all the info you want to know. All streams with a breakdown per country and tier. The $.005 is good for a rule of thumb, it's about the average rate for all tiers.

Thanks David. I couldn't have explained it better myself.

That's not the point. Here is the list when you take the number of internet users in account: 1 Philippines 2 India 3 Portugal 4 Australia 5 Greece 6 Italy 7 Canada 8 United Kingdom 9 Hungary 10 Romania 11 Sweden 12 Belgium 13 Netherlands 14 Chile 15 United States 16 Spain 17 Brazil 18 Poland 19 Mexico 20 France

Shouldn't we also look at the total number of internet users per country. The US has about 245M internet users. So that's 0.4 downloads per user.

I don't see what you mean. Can you maybe explain?

"The larger Spotify gets, the larger the royalty rates should be." Nope: The size of Spotify does not affect the per stream rate. "The royalty rates we’ve paid out have been growing at an exponential rate" Not true either. Over the last year the per stream rate did not grow at all. Check this graph of per stream rates over the last two years. http://www.spotidj.com/blog/spotify-payout-q2-2012/

I don't think streaming is the new radio. It's somewhere in between radio and downloads. For some it replaces radio for others (myself included)it replaces downloads. It's a league of its own. You are right about the performance part. Small payments because not enough people are listening. That's partly because there are not that many users yet. Streaming is still in it's infancy

Ease up man. I was joking. I'm not affiliated with Spotify so don't call me greedy. I just happen to like the service as a consumer. About fair royalty rates, how fair is the rate you get from YouTube? Why is that more fair than Spotify, Deezer or Rhapsody?

I believe they can. Even next year if they want to. The loss is due to the royalties they pay. Drastic but efficient method: lower the rates a bit and the service is profitable. But maybe it is better to wait for the services to scale?;)

Makes me wonder. Do streaming services pay you for partial streams? This is what I have found out so far: http://www.spotidj.com/blog/how-transparant-is-your-digital-distributor/

Dunno if Ek will love this. Just 10 out 28 most downloaded albums are on Spotify?

Unless you pay $10 a month for a stream a day ;)

Whatever the reason, this means that the pay out rates for July and August will rise. Good news for artists?

Michael that's exactly what I noticed when checking her website. Also no mention whatsoever on website about her music being on Spotify. That is another factor that may explain the disproportionally low stream numbers. Check my conversation with Zoe in the commets of http://www.spotidj.com/blog/low-streaming-revenues-a-self-fulfilling-prophecy/

Why should a mobile Spotify stream have a lower rate? That's a Premiums customer as well. Strange.

Could be, but my aggregator Zimbalam pays the same rate regardless if it is a free or paid user. $0.005 at the time. Which aggregator do you use? The 1 iTunes sale : 200 Spotify streams is for Top50 music BTW. My source is responsible for the top lists.

Here in The Netherlands Spotify has 1.6 million users. That's 10 % of the population. It took 2 years to reach this market share. We may not reach the same percentages as Sweden, but streaming is still growing fast. We are getting close. iTunes sales versus streams are now 1 : 200 a business insider told me.

Chris, your article says $20,000 but it is even better. I have found the original Börsen article. The revenue in that month was 200,000 Swedish kronor = 28,910 U.S. dollars!!

Feels like talking your way out of an awkward situation. Apologies and an update on your article would be nicer IMHO.

Fact is that millions of people use music like Emily does. In every age group. How to make them buy CDs? What's your plan?

The solution is there! Streaming services make it it possible to listen and it rewards the artists. Still lots of artists start complaining before streaming has taken off. You want to convert Emily and the likes? Offer all your music on streaming services and let's see what will happen over the next few years. I wouldn't count on increasing sales if I were you.