I worked for a few labels back in the day. Bands could make money depending on if they’re discerning with who they signed with. Some indie labels split profits down the middle after costs are recouped

Problem is each and every revenue stream is a fraction of what it used to be

Daniel Ek (Spotify CEO) is 3x richer than Paul McCartney. If that doesn’t bun you out enough, he uses his fortune to invest in sketchy AI for military applications., plus you know… Joe Rogan and all that shit

Fuck that guy in the face

Nah. My band’s releases that I have the rights to are not on Spotify on purpose. I’m not going to give you free use of my art so you can pay myself and my bandmates almost enough to get a sandwich every quarter.

Fuck right off with that insulting shit.

I worked at labels for years… that’s not the way it works

If an artist is enough of a dummy to blow their entire advance unwisely quitting their job, spend months in the studio, and get an elaborate tour bus: the label will pay for it but those expenditures are weighed against your royalties. Scummy labels exist, sure, but often the artist went on a spending spree with what anointed to a loan the label was paying them.

Spotify also pays absolute garbage and fucks bands harder than most labels were ever able to

Well, it did do a lot of its learning on reddit and Twitter. Garbage in, garbage out

Radio stations in the US don’t have to pay artists for playing their works for money

That’s false. ASCAP/BMI/SESAC is there so stations are obligated to pay artists for use of their work. Radio stations are supposed to submit playlists to them to calculate mechanical royalties.

There is a lot of fuckery afoot and these rules aren’t enforced, but stations are supposed to pay artists for their work when they use it