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Instagram helps top artists boost earnings
The money that artists receive when their tracks get played has just hit a record high.
In 2018 £746 million was paid out - a rise of 4% on 2017.
PRS for music, which collects the royalties for artists, counted songs used on Facebook and Instagram Stories for the first time.
But according to singer-songwriter Ruth-Anne Cunningham, "a lot of songwriters are making less than minimum wage".
Ruth-Anne, who's worked with Avicii, JoJo and John Legend, says "it's great everything is starting to get monetised" but adds, "unless you have a top 40 radio hit you don't make a substantial income".
The boss of PRS says the rise of streaming has made it harder for them to monitor what's being played - and agrees that those trying to earn a living from music are losing out.
"The very successful people are doing extremely well," Robert Ashcroft tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.
"The challenge is, if you're trying to make a living and you're not a performer it's getting more difficult."
Ruth-Anne says that despite performing as well as writing, that's something she's got experience of: "I've had that where I've had massive hits and made money, but then had to be a vocal coach too.
"Back in the day you could make money from being on an album, now people see streams and people see 10 million and think that's a lot - but a songwriter might make £400 from that."
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Friday May 03 2019, @04:15PM (1 child)
Agree. Even self developed software falls into this and it is has far less performers. I really like developing on a given field but my bills are payed with business software. I set up a company for the side job part and treat it as my savings account. Maybe one day it will work out but the threshold of profitability to get me to my current salary safely for a course of 5 or 10 years is very hard to achieve
Being an artist is for those who can afford not for those who want. If you disagree the body pays. It is a noble profession the one of the artist.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday May 04 2019, @04:44PM
There are massive imbalances between value and revenue. Stories abound of the valuable songs or books that generated embarrassingly small amounts of revenue for the artists, or did generate lots of revenue but somehow 99% of it was siphoned off by middlemen. Hollywood Accounting, you know.
Obviously, the system is not working well. The entrenched interests who are opposed to real reform have had entirely too much success, though you wouldn't know it from the whining and bellyaching they make over piracy. I keep wondering when the dam will burst and sweep the current system away.