I ditched Spotify and set up my own music stack

Re:I ditched Spotify and set up my own music stack by Spivak on Thursday September 04, 2025 @09:40PM (#45134222)

There's just one problem with your model. There's no royalty difference between a Spotify subscriber playing one song vs 1000 songs if it's just % of subscriber's listening time. Someone who gets more plays by absolute numbers is going to be upset when they don't get a proportionate amount of money. The only way to make more money on Spotify is to get more fans and/or convince your existing fans to listen to fewer artists.

This is a popular HN suggestion for disbursement but it makes the math super weird.

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Re:I ditched Spotify and set up my own music stack by ruffsl on Thursday September 04, 2025 @11:15PM (#45134675)

This isn't likely to happen or change, but what if subscribers were instead billed by usage? If you streamed 24 hours a day for the whole month, that could round out to $10 a month, but if less, then simply a proportional percentage.

Spotify would never forgo current profits from flat monthly plans, but then why shouldn't artists be granted the same advantages in royalties proportional to a subscriber's ratio of playtime if the subscribers are charged a flat rate any how?

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