Spotify?
Tue, 07/19/2011 - 4:55pm
Have you heard of Spotify? It just launched in the US.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/spotify-launces-in-the-us-with-ho...
What do you think of it? I'm pretty excited.
And, since CD Baby syndicates to them, all of our stuff is available to stream from them:
Weemayk Music 2011 Sampler (Spotify Playlist) -- http://open.spotify.com/user/weemaykmusic/playlist/3clDnlEY72QGBNjBXnRjPM
Fri, 07/22/2011 - 8:06am
#2
Spotify
We've had it in the UK for about 3 years. It used to be better - you had access to practically all popularly released music in the world, available to listen to on a whim, interrupted by a commercial every 3 songs or so.
I think now you have a limit on how many times you can listen to a song/album (x5) and how much listening time you have a month (30 hours), but it all used to be unlimited.
I listened to 'Major Matt Mason Presents: Alternate Huggabroomstik' there. (Only thing bearing your name on there Matt other than Dan Johnston tribute.)
It might prevent people from actually shelling-out on a physical copy, but would ensure they get paid everytime someone sampled.
Commercials are horrible though. I can foresee a world where no one needs to own physical copies of records, as everything is stored online. This of course would make physical copies of records NOT available on Spotify very desirable/collectable/valuable.
It's not a bad thing on the whole. I sometimes listen to albums I already own because I can't be bothered to go in the other room and get the CD.
Fri, 07/22/2011 - 10:17am
#3
Is it the same as Pandora?
Is it the same as Pandora? How do they obtain the music? Did Huggabroomtik get paid for that?
Fri, 07/22/2011 - 8:25pm
#4
Similar to Pandora- except
Similar to Pandora- except Pandora you don't get to choose the song you hear. They will play similar songs and artists to the song or artist you like, but if you want to hear a particular song, you're out of luck. It's like a personalized radio station- except you can't really request a song.
Spotify you can search for a song to play or an artist and listen to the song or music you want in exchange for a monthly fee, which goes to the record companies. I don't know if they determine how many times a song was played, or percentages, or how they pay the artists. I would think the rate is similar to what they pay you when your song is licensed or on the radio, because the person really aren't buying your songs, but renting it.
Sat, 07/23/2011 - 8:15am
#5
Hmmm.
Never used Pandora so can't say. 'Low Blow' is on there. You & Nan ever seen any money from Spotify?! You might want to ask Sitzer.
'I Dream of Teeth' is on, but you can only listen to it if you're a subscriber. Same with 'Elephant in the Room'. Both say 'Olive Juice Music Under Exclusive License to Haute Areal'.
So I suppose this answers your 'How do they obtain the music' question.
I think Spotify US is invite only, as it was when it started over here. I don't have any invites or I'd send one. Might be worth asking on your preferred Social Network, or request on here: https://www.spotify.com/us/hello-america/
Tue, 07/26/2011 - 11:56pm
#6
Cheers. I'll check it out. I
Cheers. I'll check it out. I think I've gotten paid through BMI for that. I remember seeing something on there called "streaming." I think my last payment was for a grand total of something like $5.00
Thu, 07/28/2011 - 1:07pm
#7
Invites
This Manchester music blogger days he'll give in invites to people commenting on this blog posting: http://t.co/oDeM4hC
Thu, 08/04/2011 - 1:45pm
#8
Huggabroomstik paid by CD Baby
As someone who uses CD Baby, I can only presume that "Alternate Huggabroomstik" got on Spotify because they used CD Baby for that one.
All the Elastic No-No Band, Joe Crow Ryan, and Thomas Patrick Maguire stuff is on Spotify because CD Baby syndicates it to them, along with iTunes and the other usual suspects.
As far as moolah, they only pay 1 cent or less per track play -- which is about the same as websites like last.fm or Lala (R.I.P.). The difference is that it seems like our tracks get a lot MORE plays on Spotify, which actually means we eventually get a few bucks (literally) back from Spotify/CD Baby.
(Looking back at my statements, it seems that the amount they pay for a play varies, but I'm not completely sure why. I don't know if they pay less for partial plays, or if it's a play by Free member versus a paying Premium member, or if it's like the Brooklyn Tea Party and it just depends how much money they've made that day and they divide it up on that basis.)
So... It's still not as good for the artist as someone buying a CD or download of your music, but as a listener, it's a great treasure trove -- I just listened to a Doug Sahm tribute album I never would have heard about, because I typed in some phrase (looking for something else) that brought up the album as a result.
It's a great vehicle for stumbling upon interesting music.
Fri, 08/05/2011 - 1:50pm
#9
spotify/songkick story
Funny thing happened in Berlin...
We were playing "A" bar and these two guys from Finland came to the show. They were visiting for a few days and looked up local concerts for that evening in songkick, linked to us in spotify to take a listen, and decided to come to the show.
SERIOUSLY????
totally feel validated for all those hours of entering concert details!
One of them helps organize a festival in Helsinki and wants us to come play...okay, so maybe this stuff works?
r
Fri, 08/05/2011 - 4:38pm
#10
Yeah Finland!
Nice work! Rachel! This is a great great example how things can work. I know sometimes this stuff feels like spitting in the ocean but if you keep at it eventually stuff does happen. At first you feel like it doesn't matter what you do. But then you just realize that's not really true. It's just a lot more work than you thought it was. I'm always reminded of the saying: "The more hard work I do the luckier I get."
The book "The Tipping Point" addresses this sort of miss match of work to success that most of us have in our heads. Sometimes (most of the time really) opportunity can occur vary rapidly for short spurts of time. These little windows of opportunities can translate into a path of greater success, potentially even a lifetime. It throws us a bit because we were are used to the traditional work scenario where we get paid a days wage for a day of work. But with most people who area really successful you'll find that opportunities can often come rapidly and seemingly out of nowhere. So then we start to believe that our work is pointless and it doesn't matter so we get lazy.
So, sometimes these opportunities come as a result of years of thankless work and sometimes they just seem to come from being in the right place at the right time. The big secret is that regardless of how "you" perceive your opportunities (or how others see them) lots and lots of hard work is always the the key to generating opportunity and, more importantly, turning it into success. Wow I'm starting to sound like a New Age infomercial. Anyway, that's so great to hear Rachel! Rock on!
Good stuff here.
I'm gonna read more about Spotify. I'm not so sure. Soundcheck did an interesting segment about it yesterday. Some people say this is the final nail in the coffin of album oriented music. Or one might say it's a return of the Single. But I haven't used it yet.
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/2011/jul/19/smackdown-spotlight-str...
"Here to do great things."