Because of the Spotify boycotts happening right now, 2022 might end up being a better year for indie artists that continue using the platform.
Usually the joke about Spotify is how little they pay the artists. It has to do with how the money is divided up among them. After Spotify takes their cut (which I’m guessing is quite large), the rest is divided up based on how many streams each artist received. So, for example, Metallica will always make more than a local band that got 1000 streams that year. And if said local band works really hard and doubles their promo, resulting in 2000 streams the following year…they might actually make LESS money if, during that same year, Metallica (or Drake, or any other huge artist) also did a round of promo resulting in THEIR streams doubling too. 10 million to 20 million is a bigger chunk of the pie than going from 1000 to 2000.
The formula isn’t “X money per stream”. The formula is “we have X money to divide up among all the bands…how big of a cut does each band get?”. So everyone’s money is dependent upon everyone else’s activity (or inactivity) on the platform.
With all these bigger artists boycotting Spotify, the smaller indie bands that stick around MIGHT actually see a bit of an uptick in their Spotify revenue from this year. Fewer bands taking larger pieces of the pie and all that.
Obviously it's a big genre specific. Thus far I've mostly seen acts in the folk/acoustic world leaving Spotify. That likely won't help indie bands in the metal genre, for example. But all the singer/songwriters that make music comparable to Neil Young and the like...now might be a good time to do a bit of promo and see if the Spotify check is a tad larger this year.
Either way, good luck to ya.
