Revenue indi musicians get from spotify--is it comparable to what Amazon will offerf?

[emellaich]

Here is an Indy musician talking about their revenue share from various distributors. I wonder if this gives us any insight as to what Amazon will offer Indy authors?

UK band Uniform Motion ...

With Spotify, we'll get $0.0041/play.
If you listen to the album all the way through, we'll get $0.04.

Amazon MP3: ... We will get $6.86 EUR of that. That's a 70-30 split.

iTunes: we will keep 6.28 EUR/album.

If you buy a CD, ... there's $5.99 left for us.

I included the other numbers to show that they get prices for normal sales even better than many book authors will see, but on an all-you-can-eat plan they get four cents per album. Of course, it is more likely that music listeners will play the same album multiple times. But to get the six euro equivalent, the entire album would need to be played 150 times on Spotify by the same person.

http://gizmodo.com/5840580/what-a-ba...treaming-sales

[stonetools]

Seems to me that musicians will starve to death, based on what they'll get from Spotify. I'm hoping for the author's sakes that Amazon will offer a much, much better deal.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Here is an Indy musician talking about their revenue share from various distributors. I wonder if this gives us any insight as to what Amazon will offer Indy authors?



I included the other numbers to show that they get prices for normal sales even better than many book authors will see, but on an all-you-can-eat plan they get four cents per album. Of course, it is more likely that music listeners will play the same album multiple times. But to get the six euro equivalent, the entire album would need to be played 150 times on Spotify by the same person.

http://gizmodo.com/5840580/what-a-ba...treaming-sales

hmmmm, that's interesting. I can see some people doing well with this model although it seems rather small at first.

Just yesterday I listened to the same song 12 times in loop. There's the all you can eat album fee right there. There are books I've read more than 12 times in a single year. I typically will re-read a book directly after finishing it.

But, this system will not work for me... I like to own, not rent.

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

hmmmm, that's interesting. I can see some people doing well with this model although it seems rather small at first.

Just yesterday I listened to the same song 12 times in loop. There's the all you can eat album fee right there. There are books I've read more than 12 times in a single year. I typically will re-read a book directly after finishing it.

But, this system will not work for me... I like to own, not rent.

But note that that entire album fee was only four cents!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Here is an Indy musician talking about their revenue share from various distributors. I wonder if this gives us any insight as to what Amazon will offer Indy authors?

I'm afraid I don't understand your point. We already know exactly what Amazon pay authors: 70% of the purchase price. Can you clarify what it is that you're asking?

[nogle]

But to get the six euro equivalent, the entire album would need to be played 150 times on Spotify by the same person.

It would be a very rare album I have bought on CD and *not* listened to at least 150 times. It seems like in the short run, the CD pays more, but in the long run, the rental model could pay much more.

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm afraid I don't understand your point. We already know exactly what Amazon pay authors: 70% of the purchase price. Can you clarify what it is that you're asking?

Harry,

Sorry I wasn't clear. Amazon is rumored to be investigating an all-you-can-eat service for books -- similar to the way that netflix lets you download unlimited movies for free. The rumor says it would be bundled in with Amazon Prime service.

I don't know what the deal will be, but I suspect the authors will get significantly less than normal margins. That Prime fee (is it $79 currently?) needs to be split among free two day shipping, free video downloads, and now, free books.

My guess is that it will be heavily loaded with backlist books that don't generate much revenue anyway. However, whatever the content, my guess is that the author will get significantly less revenue than for normal (70/30) book sales.

In the original article, I compare what happens with music. The musicians get $5 or so if their album is sold as a traditional download, but they only get four cents if it is streamed over an all-you-can-eat subscription service.

Of course, one difference between music and books is that music can be streamed multiple times as people re-listen to songs. However, books are less likely to see frequent re-downloads.

[OtterBooks]

Boy, it has been a slow news week.

[carpetmojo]

I don't understand why you are asking this question, emallaich.........

Of course Amazon will continue to offer their authors the very best terms they can, there's surely no question they would ever reduce their writer's income, in order to make themselves more profit and make things better for their business worldwide....

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

Boy, it has been a slow news week.

Saving up for a big holiday season, probably.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

I don't understand why you are asking this question, emallaich.........

Of course Amazon will continue to offer their authors the very best terms they can, there's surely no question they would ever reduce their writer's income, in order to make themselves more profit and make things better for their business worldwide....

Their trend has been to give their authors better terms, not worse, so yes, I think your optimism is probably justified. Doing that is good for business, because it means that they will attract more authors. Everybody wins.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Their trend has been to give their authors better terms, not worse, so yes, I think your optimism is probably justified. Doing that is good for business, because it means that they will attract more authors. Everybody wins.

I think this is right...and in any event, authors can always opt out.

The royalty rate for streaming music is complicated, and I don't know that much about it. And what I remember about it may apply only to the US. But the original royalty rate for streaming was set at the same rate as streaming on the radio. (Called the publishing rate, but that's all I know about it). Later legal changes set the rate at the higher "performance" rate (whatever that is) - this was the cause, a few years ago, of several streaming companies (most notably Pandora) almost going out of business because they couldn't afford the higher rates. There were additional legal changes and a new rate was set - I think it may have been a sliding scale based on revenue, and presumably it lies somewhere between the publishing rate and the performance rate.

Anyway, I don't think that any of these issues really apply to a subscription service for books.