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HARD TO HEAR

Why So Many Musicians Hate TikTok And Meta, Explained

Grant Brunner
Grant Brunner
Why So Many Musicians Hate TikTok And Meta, Explained
Musicians are already being screwed by the likes of Apple and Spotify, but it's so much worse on social media platforms like TikTok and Meta.
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Platforms and music labels are making profits hand-over-fist, but artists are making shockingly little money from popular online services. At this point, it might not even be worth the hassle of uploading their catalogs to begin with.

Musician and Redditor u/jogurpiano put together a pair of charts showing exactly how many individual song plays each service requires before they pay out a single dollar. Services dedicated to music streaming like Apple Music and Spotify look terrible, with a required 201 and 373-stream threshold, respectively, for just a buck.

Unfortunately, social media platforms that rely on licensed music are much, much worse. TikTok needs a song to hit 1,134 streams before the artist gets one measly dollar. Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, is even worse, with a 200,042-play threshold.

The data has been plotted below using both logarithmic and linear scales. You can tell it's a bad deal with the first chart, but the second one drives home just how indefensibly Meta is treating the musicians its platforms benefit from.


Click images to enlarge

logarithmic scale

linear scale


Via Reddit.

[Image: Pixabay]

Comments

  1. William Espey 1 week ago

    The business model completely flipped back when people actually purchased music—like full "albums" and "CDs." (I'm old, so I remember what a big deal it was when CDs came out.) Artists used to tour and play live to promote album sales and make money. Now, they promote streams to build audiences to play live and make money. But touring is loaded with expenses, so it's a pittance. The audience will ultimately lose as talented, creative people are disincentivized to make art and instead have to settle for a "real job" in order to survive economically. This is a COLLECTIVE LOSS.

    1. Jason V Brock 1 week ago

      Spot on. I'm a musician. It's true: We need to get away from the Tech model that Steve Jobs invented, where a song is only valued at $.99. That doesn't factor in PR, touring, the studio costs, the writing, etc. It's a racket. Spotify and Meta are simply capitalizing on his bad start.

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