I think steaming just represents such a small share of revenue for professional musicians that negotiating over it isn't worth the headache for the most part. For Swift in particular, touring definitely represents the overwhelming majority of her income.
Re:Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros
by expedition32 on Saturday December 06, 2025 @06:52AM
(#46172603)
Yes I read once that Spotify just makes you famous enough to book gigs.
If your song is streamed 10 million times chances are a festival will call your manager. The money is in concerts not albums.
Re:Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros
by Wowfunhappy on Saturday December 06, 2025 @02:28PM
(#46175950)
All the more reason to offer some real money in exchange for exclusivity, no? Because it would be relatively cheap.
They do compete on content. How many billions did Spotify spend on Joe Rogan? And it happens with music too, some bands moved away from Spotify in rage recently and at least one person switched to Tidal to keep listening to KGLW https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/26/king-gizzard-a...
That said, my interpretation is that bands don’t really make a lot of money from streaming, it’s more of a promotional platform for them so it makes sense to just be everywhere to be seen. This is not true for tv/films.
Idk. I can imagine an alternate universe where Taylor Swift's new album was exclusive to Spotify. All the Swifties using Apple Music probably aren't interested in "Taylor Swift knockoffs".
It's not entirely obvious to me why this hasn't happened.