I ditched Spotify and set up my own music stack

Re:I ditched Spotify and set up my own music stack by the_gastropod on Thursday September 04, 2025 @07:33PM (#45133431)

I used to work with a former member of a moderately successful rock band (they had a song in Guitar Hero, for example). He'd talk a bit about the royalties he'd received. His royalties from Spotify were negligible. Like single digit dollars per month.

Think about a ~$15/hour job. A solo artist would need ~500k streams per month to hit that. Only the top fraction of a percentage of artists on Spotify hit that.

Music has always been a tough business with middle men taking the lion's share of the upside. Streaming services just add another layer of middlemen.

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Re:I ditched Spotify and set up my own music stack by cortesoft on Thursday September 04, 2025 @08:05PM (#45133646)

> A solo artist would need ~500k streams per month to hit that

How many hours did it take to create the songs? You can write a song and then keep making money off it for years. There are also other revenue streams, with live performances and merchandise, etc.

I don’t think you can really compare music streaming to a full time job unless someone is ONLY making music for streaming and doing it 40 hours a week.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:I ditched Spotify and set up my own music stack by dagi3d on Thursday September 04, 2025 @08:24PM (#45133752)

how much did their label get?

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