Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift and Drake are the usual suspects in the top three spots on the annual Spotify streaming chart. Reggaeton star Bad Bunny has even taken the top spot for the third time in a row and is slowly developing into a kind of Bayern Munich in the streaming world. His album “Un Verano Sin Ti” also took first place, but he didn’t make it into the top three for songs.
Here Harry Styles dominates with “As I Was”, the Glass Animals come in second with their 2020 hit “Heatweaves” and The Kid Laroi is in second place along with Justin Bieber and “Stay”.
Streaming market leader Spotify has just published these charts in its annual “Wrapped” review – and at the same time sent its users their personal statistics, which are eagerly shared by many on social media channels. They are doing free advertising for a service that notoriously pays the majority of musicians poorly and, above all, puts money in the pockets of top stars.
Because even those whose private top ten have neither Bad Bunny nor Drake, yes, even those who have never clicked on one of their songs still contributed to their income. The so-called pro rata model, which distributes usage and advertising profits according to market share, is at the root of this evil.
Other services also use it, but Amazon, Apple and Tidal pay more to the musicians. Tidal also offers a more expensive subscription, of which up to ten percent goes directly to the artists who are most listened to by the respective users.
Deezer also wanted to switch to a user-centric model, but so far it has stuck with the announcement. The problem obviously lies with the record companies, who license and deliver the content to the streamers and decide how the revenue is distributed among their artists.
The major labels in particular are doing well with the current model and are not showing any noticeable initiative to make streaming fairer. That’s why it means for musicians: Keep your eyes open when signing the contract and for the fans: Keep your eyes open when choosing a platform.
And for anyone who cares about supporting musicians outside of the Bad Bunny Swift Drake league, in addition to CDs and records, there are often Bandcamp sites where albums can be purchased almost directly from the producers be able. You can then also brag about it on social media.
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Source: Tagesspiegel
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