Affected by the coronavirus epidemic, Goldman Sachs analysts predict that the total revenue of the global music industry will decline by about 25% year-on-year this year.
With live performances largely cancelled, many musicians can only make a living on the copyright remuneration paid by streaming websites, and their income has plummeted.
Some bands and singers were forced to give up music and find another job. Recently, some musicians protested, demanding that streaming media websites raise royalties and pay them the remuneration they deserve.
For more well-known singers and bands, the remuneration for live performances is relatively considerable, but after the outbreak of the epidemic, live performances were suspended. Musicians can only rely on streaming media websites to spread their works, and the rewards paid by streaming websites for each song are extremely meagre, with an average of a few cents per play.
Tom Gray, a member of the British Gomez Band: Streaming brings us very little income. For each song played, we are paid only about 0.004 pounds (about 3 points). What I want to say is that the ecology of the music industry is about to end, and about half of musicians now have no food to eat.
Netizens play it once, and the website pays the band 3 cents. This means that the song has been played 10,000 times, and the band can only get a salary of about 300 yuan, which is obviously incompatible with the musician’s pay.
Joey De Francesco is a member of an American band. Because he had not performed for a long time, he had to make a living.
Joey de Francesco, a member of an American band: I have been taking teaching and freelance writing, and I will also take orders through Uber to provide hitchhiking services (making money).
Joey also participated in a campaign launched by local musicians to ask the music streaming website represented by Spotifie to raise the copyright remuneration to at least pay one cent, or about seven cents per song played, twice as much as before.
Musicians’ boycott of streaming platforms such as Spottyfi has been brewing for a long time. It is understood that the British government has begun to investigate the incident, and the investigation is expected to continue until next year.
Reuters reporter Oliver Reagan: In the UK, a campaign launched by Tom Gray and others prompted the government to launch an investigation into the streaming media industry.
The government wants to find out how this industry with revenue of more than $1 billion can only spend 13% of its revenue as compensation and pay musicians. They called for a radical change in this model.
