That's what the issue is with "digital" is sometimes there is no way to determine how much you should be compensated. Read the article below:
"One criticism about existing streaming platforms centers around artist pay. Spotify, for instance, uses a complicated system to calculate artist payouts that averages somewhere between $0.006 and $0.0084 per stream.Time magazine crunched the numbers last fall and the top grossing song on Spotify from January - October of 2014 was “Summer” by Calvin Harris. Users streamed the song 203 million times, and the payout fell somewhere between $1.2 million and $1.7 million."
Those numbers are controversial however. Taylor Swift famously removed her catalogue from Spotify last fall saying:
"I'm not willing to contribute my life's work to an experiment that I don't feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists and creators of this music. And I just don't agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free."
The aforementioned Time article, citing a Spotify spokesperson, claimed Taylor Swift made $2 million off global Spotify streams. Swift’s Big Machine recording label says the payout was significantly less: $496,044.
Taylor Swift, Jay-Z take music business into own hands as Apple looms - Yahoo Finance
That's kinda small, had it been a physical CD single, 203 million would be ground breaking. Then again digital streams is convenient. Also, I would think it;s easier for the "owners" to manipulate the numbers but I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist.
"One criticism about existing streaming platforms centers around artist pay. Spotify, for instance, uses a complicated system to calculate artist payouts that averages somewhere between $0.006 and $0.0084 per stream.Time magazine crunched the numbers last fall and the top grossing song on Spotify from January - October of 2014 was “Summer” by Calvin Harris. Users streamed the song 203 million times, and the payout fell somewhere between $1.2 million and $1.7 million."
Those numbers are controversial however. Taylor Swift famously removed her catalogue from Spotify last fall saying:
"I'm not willing to contribute my life's work to an experiment that I don't feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists and creators of this music. And I just don't agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free."
The aforementioned Time article, citing a Spotify spokesperson, claimed Taylor Swift made $2 million off global Spotify streams. Swift’s Big Machine recording label says the payout was significantly less: $496,044.
Taylor Swift, Jay-Z take music business into own hands as Apple looms - Yahoo Finance
That's kinda small, had it been a physical CD single, 203 million would be ground breaking. Then again digital streams is convenient. Also, I would think it;s easier for the "owners" to manipulate the numbers but I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist.
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