Joe Rogan is taking his massively successful podcast to Spotify in an exclusive deal that is upending the entertainment business.
The Joe Rogan Experience is the most popular podcast on the planet. Each month, the show’s in-depth interviews earn 190 million downloads and generate over 300 million YouTube views. That engagement translates to a ton of cash for Rogan and every platform hosting his show, but soon fans will have only one place to turn for their JRE fix.
Spotify announced an exclusive partnership with Joe Rogan on Tuesday, May 19, that will bring both the audio and video version of his platform to the service by the end of 2020. News of the deal and Rogan’s rumored $100-million payday has upended every facet of the entertainment business, with executives and artists at every level wondering what the move means for the future of audio. After all, podcasting is huge, but is it 9-figures huge?
To put this deal into perspective, an artist promoting their music through Spotify would need at least 28 billion streams to earn that much money. Drake, the most successful artist in Spotify history, only crossed the 28 billion stream threshold in late 2019.
But the deal is done and there is no turning back. Artists will continue to complain, but we see a lot of good things developing as a result of this announcement. For starters, a more Spotify users raises the likelihood of increased streams and discovery. Then there is the video element to Rogan’s deal, which will require a massive UI update that creates a world of possibilities for all creators.
In this Music Biz News update, host James Shotwell breaks down Rogan’s deal and explores the many ways his Spotify partnership will help artists everywhere in time.
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Bandcamp waived its share of the revenue earned from song and album sales last Friday.
In these uncertain times, it is good to know there are people in the world who are passionate about helping musicians get ahead. Touring right now is impossible, and streams are declining, but last Friday, album sales for indie artists were up in a big way thanks to Bandcamp.
As previously reported, Bandcamp waived its share of any revenue generated through its platform last Friday, March 20. The one-day promotion was part of a global effort to support independent musicians struggling to pay bills in light of Covid-19. Artists and labels alike promoted the initiative, as did several high-profile publications, and fans, thankfully, came out to show their support.
The numbers tell a remarkable story: on a typical Friday, fans buy about 47,000 items on Bandcamp, but this past Friday, fans bought nearly 800,000, or $4.3 million worth of music and merch. That’s more than 15 times the service’s Friday, and at the peak, fans were buying 11 items per second.
A post announcing the sales figure on the Bandcamp blog made it clear the platform is far from over supporting its artists. It reads:
“We don’t yet know the long-term impact of Covid-19, but we know that we all need music—to uplift and inspire us, to heal us, and to give us hope. We’ll continue working to make Bandcamp the best place for fans and artists to come together and sustain each other in the challenging times ahead. Thank you again, and we wish you all good health!”
It’s hard to emphasize the importance of buying music and merch from artists during this difficult time enough. As we mentioned in our Music Biz video series, streaming numbers are down across the industry, which means artists are seeing less revenue from consumption that unusual. Supporting musicians through the purchase of music and merchandise is the best way to help artists pay their bills and continue creating music.
With every artist unable to tour for the foreseeable future due to coronavirus concerns, all eyes are on music streaming and the revenue it (hopefully) produces.
Coronavirus has left countless musicians off the road, out of work, and struggling to make ends meet. The dependency on album sales and streaming has never been as high as it is now, but startling data brought to light by Rolling Stone (and other sources) say that music streams are declining.
According to numbers from Alpha Data, the data analytics provider that powers the Rolling Stone Charts, streams in the United States actually fell last week, failing to offset a far more grim downturn in digital and physical album sales.
During the week of March 13 through March 19, the same week most businesses and restaurants were forced to close, streams dropped 7.6 percent, to under 20.1 billion. Programmed streams on services like Pandora dropped 9 percent to just under 3.5 billion, while on-demand streams (audio and video) dropped 7.3 percent to 16.6 billion.
The sales side of music did not far any better. Digital song sales dropped 10.7 percent to 3.9 million, which is the lowest one-week total since Alpha Charts began tracking the sales. Physical album sales plummeted 27.6 percent and digital album sales dropped 12.4 percent. Album sales declining is nothing new, but these changes are closer to jumping off a cliff than rolling down a hill.
What the charts fail to reveal, however, are the likely reasons for these changes. With businesses closed and more people working from home, commutes have temporarily dissipated. The vast majority of listening time for individuals can be attributed to time spent in their cars, but most have nowhere to go right now. People also have limited time to themselves at home, as everyone (spouses, partners, kids) is home together. Finding time to listen to an album in full or even music in general, is difficult.
But fear not! As host James Shotwell explains in the latest episode of Music Biz, there are still reasons to keep hopes high. Some areas of music are thriving in the streaming age, and there remains a huge audience of devoted music fans who are constantly seeking the next song that makes them feel good. Your music may very well end up being the soundtrack to someone’s quarantine, and that possibility is all the reason anyone should need to keep going.
More importantly, the panic and existential dread people feel right now is temporary. As people come to understand and accept our new reality they will once again turn to music. It’s music, not film or television or video games, that offers hope for a better tomorrow. You have a role to play in the recovery, and we are going to be with you every step of the way.
According to a new analysis of official fiscal numbers, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, and Warner Music Group jointly generated $22.9m, on average, every 24 hours in 2019.
The streaming business is big business. That isn’t news, per se, but it is often hard to quantify what constitutes success on most streaming platforms. Some artists consider reaching one-million plays on any song a significant milestone. In contrast, others may see it as a disaster, and those varying perspectives make the entire world of streaming confusing to most consumers. What is, for lack of a better description, good?
Money is a different topic. Everyone agrees that making a million dollars in ant amount of time is a good thing, but making that much per hour? That’s practically unbelievable.
Our friends at MusicBusinessWorldwide have been analyzing the official fiscal numbers of major record labels, and in doing so, they stumbled across a fantastic data point. Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, and Warner Music Group jointly generated $22.9m, on average, every 24 hours in 2019.
If we look at the last quarter of 2019, things get even crazier.
According to MBW’s number-crunching of corporately-reported recorded music numbers, Universal’s artists and labels generated $1.02bn from streaming in calendar Q4 2019; Sony’s generated $669m; and Warner’s generated $589m. In total, that meant the majors’ recorded music divisions collectively turned over $2.26bn from streaming in the fourth calendar quarter, which equates to $24.8m per day, or $1.03m every single hour.
Streaming revenue growth for Warner, Sony, and Universal year over year
Crazier still is the fact that these numbers are likely to continue growing in 2020. Growth in the streaming marketplace is slowing as the market saturates. Still, there remain many demographics and countries that streaming platforms are hoping to convert to subscribers in the years to come.
Where will it stop? More importantly, what will the artists making these numbers possible see from these massive revenue streams? We don’t have answers at this time, but we hope to have more information soon.
Spotify, the world’s most popular streaming service, continues to grow at an unbelievable rate, and it has significant plans for expansion in 2020.
Spotify released its Q4 earnings report this week. The data tells us not only how the service performed at the end of 2019 but also provides a glimpse at the last year as a whole. The streaming giant is the market leader, and the latest numbers show the company is likely to remain ahead of the competition.
According to the report, Spotify now has more than 124 million premium monthly subscribers worldwide, up 29% year over year. The company gained more than 10 million subscribers in the last quarter, marking the fastest growth period in Spotify history. That success is attributed, at least in part, to an expansion of the platform’s famous “Three months for free” trial period that now includes family plans.
Ad-supported monthly Spotify users now total 153 million, up 32% on the year, and 9% on the quarter. The numbers confirm the Stockholm, Sweden-based company’s big lead over its two closest rivals – Apple Music had more than 60 million subscribers as of July 2019, and Amazon had over 55 million subscribers globally.
Revenue has risen to $2.05 billion (1.86 billion euros), up 24% from a year earlier. Analysts are predicting a slightly higher revenue for Q1 of 2020, but Spotify is trying to keep investor expectations relatively calm, estimating income relatively in line with Q4.
Spotify also announced this week that it plans to purchase Bill Simmons’ sports and pop-culture news organization The Ringer as part of its quest to claim podcast dominance. The company did not disclose what it would pay for The Ringer, which launched in 2016, but the deal is set to close in April 2020.
For more insight and analysis, let’s turn to Music Biz News host James Shotwell:
Spotify streaming royalties often upset artists, but how many plays does a musician need to live above the poverty line? We did the math.
The streaming wars are raging on. Spotify has more than one hundred million monthly subscribers worldwide, which places the platform far ahead of its peers, but Apple Music and Amazon Music are gaining millions of new users with each passing month. Whether or not the global economy can sustain the numerous streaming platforms won’t be decided for some time, but whether or not artists can survive the streaming economy is a hot topic that needs to be addressed.
Any industry expert will tell you that musicians today have it easy. There are more avenues for exposure than ever, recording music is (or can be) cheap, and an increasing number of artists are finding success outside the traditional label system. It is theoretically possible for anyone with access to a laptop and the ability to convey a melody to become a digital sensation who has fans all over the world without the aid of big label money (though, to be fair, big label money still makes a sizable difference).
Streaming payouts are a relatively new revenue stream for musicians. No one is suggesting artists survive on streaming royalties alone. Still, with physical media sales bottoming out and competition for tour revenue increasing, the money made from streaming can have a significant impact on an artist’s ability to develop, not to mention sustain themselves.
Still, every other week someone goes viral online and builds an entire career of the profits made from streaming royalties. The majority of these overnight sensations are young and without families to support, but they still have the cost of living expenses that need to be met. That got us to thinking: How many streams does it take to survive on streaming revenue alone?
According to the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), the poverty line for single-person households is $11,770. If we ignore how that figure would be hard for anyone to live on in a major city (and most mid-size cities), then we can round up to $12,000 and use streaming revenue calculators to figure out how many Spotify streams someone would need to sustain themselves.
At an average payout of $0.006 per song stream, a musician living in the United States needs 3,000,000 plays annually to have a gross income of $12,000.
Of course, if the artist has a label deal the record company would get paid before the artist. Depending on the amount owed to the label, the artist may need millions of addition plays to see the same amount of income themselves.
But what about people with families? The ASPE puts the poverty line for a family of four (2 adults, 2 children) at $24,250. Using the same average royalty rate, a musician would need 6,062,500 Spotify streams to earn that amount of gross income.
These numbers get much bigger when the musician is part of a larger group. If a band has four members and all four have families where they were the sole source of income, the group would need to generate 24,250,000 Spotify streams to gross enough so each member’s family would be at or above the poverty line.
Again, no one is saying an artist should survive on streaming royalties alone. Some will be able to make it work, especially if they have a large following and low overhead, but most will need to create as many revenue streams as possible to survive. The key to a long career in music today is through the development of a community around an artist and their work that promotes purchasing merch, physical media, and concert tickets. That has always been true, and likely won’t change anytime soon.
In a new call with investors, Spotify revealed continued, if slow, growth.
It’s good to be king. Spotify was the first to make a big splash with music streaming, and their early entry into the marketplace helped propel the Swedish company to the top of the food chain. These days, the term Spotify has become synonymous with streaming. “You can find them on Spotify” means, “you can stream their music online.” That’s an excellent place to be, and the latest stats for the music company show the good times are far from over.
Spotify held its Q2 earnings call with investors earlier this week. During the update, the company announced it had passed 232 million monthly active users, up 29% since this time last year. Spotify also boasts 108 million paid subscribers, up 31% year over year. An infographic detailing all the latest developments at the company was also released. Check it out:
The biggest announcements of Spotify’s Q2 earnings report.
Apple Music is Spotify’s closest competitor. At the beginning of July, Apple Music announced it had just surpassed the 60 million subscriber mark, which leaves Spotify with a substantial lead. However, the new data from Spotify reveals a slowing adoption rate for subscribers. The cause for that slowdown is not clear, but market saturation and increased competition are two likely factors contributing to the change.
Spotify has a lot of developments on the horizon that the company hopes will raise the growth rate, including additional podcast content and a device for automobiles that will eliminate the need for terrestrial radio in vehicles. You can learn more about the device, which has been dubbed the ‘car thing,’ in the Music Biz News clip below.
Streaming has made a significant impact on songwriting. So much so, that the entire music industry is trying to catch up to ‘The Spotify Sound.’
No one knew what Spotify would do to the music business. People were quick to assume the easy of access to the majority of all recorded music would lure people away from physical media, but no one thought to consider the ripple effect that seismic shift in consumer behavior would create.
Physical sales of music were on the decline before Spotify launched, but the now ten-year-old company and its competitors in the streaming market have also created a drop in download sales. A few niche formats found success in the early 2010s, specifically vinyl and cassette tapes, but those trends have also fizzled as streaming continues to gain momentum.
The latest evolution resulting from the age of streaming concerns songwriting. With most streaming platforms counting a play after consumers have listened to the track for thirty-seconds, more emphasis than ever is being placed on the way songs begin. There is also added emphasis on the runtime of tracks, as well as the volume of material being released.
On this episode of Music Biz 101, host James Shotwell explains the phenomenon know as ‘The Spotify Sound’ and offers a two-step solution to writing songs that generate a high volume of streams.
The Nielsen mid-year music report is here, and it shows the reign of streaming services over the industry is far from over.
Nielsen is widely considered to be the authority on the business of entertainment, and their latest mid-year report reveals the music industry is in good standing. The recently published data found the first half of 2019 shattered previous 6-month records with more than 507 billion on-demand combined music and video streams and milestones led by singles and albums from Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Halsey, Khalid, BTS, and Bad Bunny.
The fall is widely considered the busiest time of the year for music, so it is likely the total on-demand combined streaming numbers will be equal to, if not greater than the statistics above. If true, that would mean 2019 is on pace to be the first year where streams of recorded music surpass one-trillion plays in the United States and Canada.
To date, many of this year’s most significant music moments were aided by exposure in popular films. The success of A Star Is Born, for example, gave Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s smash hit duet “Shallow” a major boost following the Acadamy Awards. The song has earned more than 684,000 track downloads, 316 million on-demand song streams, and over one-billion audience impression on the radio to date.
Nielsen sites other areas of entertainment as playing a very influential role in the rise of the year’s most popular songs. The music featured in film and television continued its upward trend from 2018 when soundtracks accounted for two of the year’s top 10 biggest sellers (The Greatest Showman and Black Panther: The Album). The impact good placement has on songs can be understood by looking at the success of Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower” ( 47.6 million U.S. streams), which appeared in the equally popular animated film Into The Spiderverse, or through the continuing success of rock biopics such BohemianRhapsody and Rocketman.
There is a wide range of Global pop genres that made a sizeable impact in the U.S as well, including K-Pop and Latin. K-Pop’s global domination, which reached record peaks in 2018, continued to reach new audiences.
230,000 equivalent album units earned for BTS’ Map of the Soul: Persona, a career-best for the K-Pop group, during the week ending April 12.
BTS and Halsey’s “Boy With Luv” reached 125 million on-demand streams so far this year, including spikes after their performance at the Billboard Music Awards on May 1.
18.6 million first week on-demand streams for BLACKPINK’s “Kill This Love,” which broke the band’s own record for highest-charting single by a K-Pop girl group on the Billboard Hot 100.
Nielsen Music’s Mid-Year 2019 Charts:
2019’s Mid-Year Top 10 Albums (Based on Overall Equivalent Album Units)
1. Ariana Grande, Thank U, Next (1,552,800) 2. Billie Eilish, When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (1,304,000) 3. Khalid, Free Spirit (929,000) 4. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born (Soundtrack) (889,000) 5. A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, Hoodie SZN (810,000) 6. Post Malone, beerbongs & bentleys (756,000) 7. Drake, Scorpion (718,000) 8. Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (Soundtrack) (705,000) 9. Juice WRLD, Death Race for Love (675,000) 10. Jonas Brothers, Happiness Begins (663,000)
2019’s Mid-Year Top 10 Selling Albums
1. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born (Soundtrack) (404,000) 2. Jonas Brothers, Happiness Begins (374,000) 3. Billie Eilish, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (343,000) 4. BTS, Map of the Soul: Persona (343,000) 5. Backstreet Boys, DNA (299,000) 6. Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (Soundtrack) (253,000) 7. Ariana Grande, Thank U, Next (228,000) 8. Soundtrack, The Greatest Showman (181,000) 9. P!nk, Hurts 2B Human (158,000) 10. Lauren Daigle, Look Up Child (154,000)
2019’s Mid-Year Top 10 Selling Vinyl Albums
1. Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (Soundtrack) (61,000) 2. Queen, Greatest Hits (49,000) 3. Billie Eilish, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (47,000) 4. Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (33,000) 5. The Beatles, Abbey Road (33,000) 6. Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon (32,000) 7. Bob Marley & The Wailers, Legend (30,000) 8. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (29,000) 9. Michael Jackson, Thriller (29,000) 10. Billie Eilish, Don’t Smile at Me (28,000)
2019’s Mid-Year Top 10 Selling Digital Songs
1. Lil Nas X, “Old Town Road” (958,000) 2. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, “Shallow” (684,000) 3. Post Malone & Swae Lee, “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)” (488,000) 4. Ariana Grande, “7 Rings” (420,000) 5. Halsey, “Without Me” (388,000) 6. Post Malone, “Wow.” (381,000) 7. Jonas Brothers, “Sucker” (357,000) 8. Lauren Daigle, “You Say” (322,000) 9. Taylor Swift featuring Brendon Urie, “Me!” (322,000) 10. Ava Max, “Sweet But Psycho” (321,000)
2019’s Mid-Year Top 10 On-Demand Song Streams (Audio and Video Combined)
1. Lil Nas X, “Old Town Road” (1,337,995,000) 2. Post Malone & Swae Lee, “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)” (850,194,000) 3. Ariana Grande, “7 Rings” (776,696,000) 4. Travis Scott, “Sicko Mode” (623,498,000) 5. Halsey, “Without Me” (599,335,000) 6. J. Cole, “Middle Child” (582,748,000) 7. Post Malone, “Wow.” (582,633,000) 8. Blueface, “Thotiana” (588,277,000) 9. Marshmello & Bastille, “Happier” (528,640,000) 10. YNW Melly, “Murder On My Mind” (498,806,000)
2019’s Mid-Year Top 10 On-Demand Audio Streams
1. Lil Nas X, “Old Town Road” (596,113,000) 2. Post Malone & Swae Lee, “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)” (458,470,000) 3. Ariana Grande, “7 Rings” (433,904,000) 4. Post Malone, “Wow.” (416,231,000) 5. J. Cole, “Middle Child” (395,872,000) 6. Meek Mill featuring Drake, “Going Bad” (337,025,000) 7. Halsey, “Without Me” (319,879,000) 8. YNW Melly, “Murder On My Mind” (287,219,000) 9. Lil Baby & Gunna, “Drip Too Hard” (284,613,000) 10. Travis Scott, “Sicko Mode” (276,802,000)
Spotify has changed the music business in many ways, including a few that you may have never considered.
There are many streaming services in the world, but none of them can compare to the size and influence of Spotify. With more than one-hundred million subscribers, the Swedish based company has nearly double the audience of its closest competitor (Apple Music). The company has grown so popular, in fact, that it has become a kind of shorthand for streaming music. People say, “Do you use Spotify,” instead of, “do you subscribe to a streaming music platform?”
Spotify has revolutionized how artists make money from their music. The company pays, on average, between $0.006 and $0.0084 per song stream. A single stream is counted when the listener has played thirty-seconds of the track. If the listener finishes the song, that’s great, but it doesn’t change the amount of money the stream earns for the artist.
With this in mind, it’s easy to understand why many industry experts claim Spotify has changed the sound of music. The ‘Spotify Sound,’ as it has been dubbed, refers to artists who waste no time getting to the heart of their song. The days of lengthy introductions or slow-burning tracks has been replaced by immediate choruses or other attention-grabbing tactics.
Another element of the ‘Spotify Sound’ is the length of a song, which again is a result of the company’s approach to compensating talent. If a play is counted after thirty-seconds of listening time, then artists are not incentivized to make longer songs. The more financially informed approach would be to record more material that is shorter, thus earning more money. A five-minute song earns as much as a two-minute song, but listeners can play multiple two-minute songs in the same amount of time, which means they can earn more money.
A glance at the Spotify and Billboard charts shows the impact of the company’s influence. “Old Town Road,” which has spent three months topping charts, is less than two minutes in length. The remix, which helped catapult the song into the pop stratosphere, runs just over two and a half minutes long.
Artists who have adapted to the influence of the ‘Spotify Sound’ are seeing success on the platform. In a recent digital feature from PBS, two members of the group Frenship credited their efforts to match the changing trends for the success they found with their hit “Capsize.” Check it out:
Other platforms have different rules for what counts as a play. Some services require a certain percentage of the song to be enjoyed before a play is counted, while others have a higher minimum for time spent listening. Both methods of counting plays encourage the same thing. Artists should make shorter, catchier songs if they want to earn big from streaming services.
