Labels get almost 3 times a larger share of the profits from streaming music than musicians

The French organization Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique (SNEP, National Syndicate for Sound Recording), together with British Ernst & Young, conducted a statistical study to determine the distribution of income from subscriptions to streaming music services such as Spotify or Deezer. As a result, it became clear that the lion’s share of income was received by music labels (46%), leaving the artists about 17% after all deductions (taxes and the share of streaming service).

In absolute terms, the distribution of money is as follows: the subscription price is € 9.99, the music label from one Spotify user gets € 4.56, and the musicians get € 0.68. Lyrics, music and editors get another € 1. The value added tax (TVA) is € 1.67, the rest goes to the platform itself. Graphically, it looks like this:



In percentage terms, excluding taxes and commission platforms, the difference is even more striking:
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This is not the first time that it has been discovered that publishers derive much more revenue from the copyright system than the authors themselves. In 2012, after the verdict of the creators of PirateBay, lawyers for the International Phonogram Manufacturers Federation (IFPI) stated that they were not going to share the damages with the authors, and the money would go to further fight against piracy. In this case, the amount of the claim was justified precisely because of the damage to specific artists. The founder of PirateBay, Peter Sunde, spoke directly: " They [labels] will rather buy cocaine for this money than share it with authors who are“ protected ”.