MBW Reacts is world music business Written in response to recent major entertainment events and news articles. MBW Reacts is supported by: JKBXa technology platform that provides consumers with access to music copyrights as an asset class.
For at least the past year, music industry leaders have expressed concern about the influx of music onto streaming services.
In a situation where streaming dominates, some people are concerned that in proportion The royalty system means that professional and popular artists' slice of the royalty pie is diluted by payments for lower quality tracks.
Others fear that quality artists will simply be drowned out by this wave of new music. That concern was further heightened by news in last year's estimates. 120,000 New tracks are being uploaded Access streaming services every day.
Such considerations are currently influencing the policies of major streaming services in particular. spotify.
So I have one very relevant question. How many tracks are currently being received on streaming services? Less than 1,000 plays per year – and how many are getting There is no play at all?
According to a new report from Market Monitor, the answer is luminateteeth So many.
according to Luminate's 2023 year-end music reportcompletely 152.2 million Tracks received respectively 1,000 or less It will be available on audio streaming services in 2023.
The number will be huge 82.7% of 184 million Music tracks measured by Luminate on audio streaming services via ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) late last year.
Furthermore, in total, 45.6 million track received zero will be staged in 2023. 24.8% of 184 million Tracks available on audio streaming platforms.
Yeah: almost a quarter The entire music catalog available on streaming services was not streamed. Never last year.
Luminate previously reported It is approx. 38 million This number increased even further in 2022, when there were 0 songs (37.9 million songs) played on streaming platforms 20% compared to previous year By 2023 7.7 million.
but total The number of tracks on streaming platforms has also increased in the last year. 16.5%YoY comparison.
According to Luminate data, out of a total of 184 million tracks available in 2023, a total of 152.2 million were streamed less than 1,000 times each.
In fact, the total amount of music in the global audio streaming ecosystem skyrocketed in 2023.
of 184 million At the end of 2023, Luminate counted the number of audio tracks on streaming services. 26 million versus 158 million Tracks measured by Luminate at the end of 2022.
In other words, there was something like this: 2.17 million New tracks uploaded to streaming services per month last year.
The new Luminate report shows that on average 103,500 In 2023, the number of new ISRCs (tracks) delivered to streaming services every day will increase 10.8% From 2022, the average 93,400 Delivered daily. ”
Related slides in new Luminate report
As you can see from above, 79.5 million Track – just finished 43% Received of all available tracks Played less than 10 times It will be available on all audio streaming services in 2023.
This kind of statistic helps explain why audio streaming services are starting to move towards an „artist-centric“ style payment model. This payment model typically favors artists with higher streaming numbers and seeks to demonetize less popular tracks that earn less revenue for each. Annual royalty amount.
The first to introduce an “artist-centric” model was Deezera music streaming service headquartered in Paris.
In October, a new payment system will be introduced in France, allowing artists with a minimum amount of funds to 1,000 Number of streams per month and minimum 500 Unique listeners receive a so-called „double“ of their royalty payments.
Under this system, artists receive an additional „double“ share of their royalties if they are actively searched for by listeners.
„I think we'll see more platforms adopting these principles in the coming months. Why? Because it's the right thing to do for artists and for the broader music ecosystem.“
Sir Lucian Grainge, Universal Music Group
Late last year, the granddaddy of music DSPs underwent a serious seismic shift. spotifyannounced that it is. Change payment model In the same way.
In addition to monetizing tracks with fewer than 1,000 streams in the past 12 months, Spotify's new model (again, starting this quarter – Q1 2024) also means that each track: We sought. Achieve the minimum unique number listener To be eligible for royalty payments.
So far, Spotify has been tight-lipped about this minimum number of unique listeners. teeth This is because they do not want to give this information to „malicious persons.''
Spotify, on the other hand, says:99.5% Of “all streams” currently on the platform, “at least 1,000 „annual streams“, and „under this policy each of these trucks would earn more revenue“.
In his recent New Year's message to staff, UMG's Sir Lucien Grainge said: predicted More streaming services will soon adopt „artist-centric“ style payment models.
„In just a few months, several global platforms, including the world's largest music platforms, have already adopted artist-centric principles that will change the way artists are compensated for their work,“ Grainge wrote. .
„I think we'll see more platforms adopting these principles in the coming months. Why? Because it's the right thing to do for artists and for the broader music ecosystem.“
While Spotify and Deezer's new payment models do address the problem of tracks with few plays, they don't necessarily solve the problem of tracks with zero plays.
In the end, under the traditional daily payment system, zero play zero Share of the Royalty Pool.
The amount of unstreamed tracks is becoming a growing problem for streaming services.
MBW estimated Spotify's lowest annual cost for „cloud computing services and additional software license fees“ is 35 million euros More than that in 2019 130 million euros In 2022.
While these numbers don't just include the cost of music storage, we can be confident that a significant portion of the increase is related to the rapid increase in songs available on the platform. (Again, these are the bare minimum possible Costs based on the limited information released by Spotify – the actual number is likely much higher. )
Last March, Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira addressed this issue during an earnings call: tell the analyst “A lot of content is uploaded to our platform every week… Our servers have a lot of content that we have to pay for. Our never-ending growing catalog has costs. takes.“
“A lot of content is uploaded to our platform every week… Our servers have a lot of content that we have to pay for. Our never-ending growing catalog comes at a cost. It will cost.”
Geronimo Folgueira, Deezer
As part of our announcement of an artist-centric payment model last September, Deeser said It „replaces non-artist noise content on the platform with unique content in a functional music space that doesn't count towards the royalty pool,“ an apparent move toward shrinking the ever-growing catalog of tracks. .
All of this leaves us with some big questions.
Is the rapid increase in the number of tracks uploaded to streaming services economically sustainable?
Should streaming services like Spotify take further steps to address this rapidly increasing cost of hosting music?
And will more radical measures, such as charging distributors for new song uploads or removing unplayed songs from the catalog, be necessary eventually?