Disc Maker’s Tony van Veen details why he believes that streaming services will never pay independent artists enough in royalties for them to make a comfortable living in the way that physical CD sales once did.
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Guest post by Tony van Veen of Disc Makers
I’m afraid I have bad news, Tony…
If you were hoping to get paid a higher royalty by Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and the other streaming companies, it ain’t gonna happen.
I’ve been in this business for a long time (32 years, to be exact). I intimately know physical product and digital distribution (CD Baby was our sister company for over a decade). And I’ve recently come to the unhappy conclusion that streaming will never pay independent artists enough to allow them to make a reasonable income (the way CDs used to back in the day). In the video above, I explain why I’ve come to this conclusion.
I don’t mean to be a downer here. The news may not be positive, but you’re better off knowing the reality than staying in the dark. That way, you can plan other ways to make money from your music.
And we’ll be here to help, of course.
Keep on fighting,
Tony van Veen CEO, Disc Makers
P.S. If you have good experience making money from streaming, let me know how you did it. I may share it in a future video. Or, if you have a way to make real money from CDs in 2019, I may share that too!