It used to be artists would record. Consumers would buy LP's or tapes, or CD's. How do the musicians make money with Spotify?

I don't use it, but I'm pretty sure it's ad based like YouTube. If you don't want ads you can pay a subscription and be ad free.

For every play on Spotify with an ad the artist gets a little bit of money.

For those with a subscription, if it's anything like YouTube, Spotify will pay the artist based on overall listen time. So if you listened to AC/DC 30% of the time last month Spotify would take it's cut of the monthly subscription off the top and then divvy out the rest to the artists and AC/DC would get 30% of that.

I'm cheap, so I deal with the commercials on my phone.
Brave browser adblock skips the ads, so you get nearly uninterrupted listening. Just a few second gap as it skips the commercials.

quote:

It used to be artists would ...

So much has changed with technology.
Not all so good but overall the product is better (produced anyway).
The good ole days going to a record store was fun.
You know it was a good source for meeting girls too (even met my wife that way)

The mechanism is different but it's probably not all that much different for artists... it might actually be better for all except the very top selling artists.

Artists had a record deal and they got paid per sale. They still get paid per "sale" but it's per download or per play (like a radio spin.)

And now it is much easier for smaller bands to get their stuff out onto a platform like spotify than to get a decent deal and good distribution and radio support. Now spotify throws them into playlists more actively than radio stations would have played them.

I have no idea if it’s better for the artist but it is better for me. I got forced into Spotify family plan by wife and college daughter. Not that expensive but I balked. Turns out I like Spotify. You can even download playlists for when you don’t have a signal. I’m converted.

Don't forget that a lot of us pay for Spotify to have no ads and a higher audio quality streaming, I'm sure artists get a cut of that?

I'd guess the artist gets a portion of a penny every time a song is played...

It isn't much, but it does add up when you count millions of folks listening.
Both my daughters subscribe to it.

I just buy the mp3 or create them from existing CD or vinyl copy and keep the file on my phone.