Spotify charges you to listen to music, and now they want to charge artists for the opportunity to be heard. That change has drawn the attention of members of the US Congress, who specifically asked Spotify CEO Daniel Ek what safety measures are in place to prevent a race to the bottom.
#MARQUEE SPOTIFY FOR ARTISTS FREE#
In essence, Spotify is repackaging previously free features, making them pay-to-play. Ask artists to accept a lower royalty payment rate to be featured and promoted by Spotify’s algorithms. Want to tell your 12,000 followers on Spotify that you’re releasing a new album this week? Be prepared to shell out money for a campaign whose cost has risen dramatically now that Spotify wants both music listeners and artists to pay to use the platform.Ī2IM highlighted how Discovery Mode is also putting pressure on artists. Spotify seems to be taking advantage of its huge user base by putting it behind a wall. That’s a terrifying prospect for early stage independent artists, who find their greatest enemy to be the dark.įood to go? Spotify’s discovery mode and marquee campaigns are monetizing the visibility of music in front of artists. The alternative, implicitly stated or not, is zero awareness and zero plays. That means that each person who clicks on a sponsored Marquee campaign would have to listen to a new album approximately 12 times for the artist to regain that fan’s interest. In that pay range, it would take artists between 100 and 167 streams to break even with just one sponsored click. 005 per stream, with $ 0.005 generally on the higher end. So let’s calculate how many streams an artist would have to receive to pay for a single click at a CPC of $ 0.50.Īccording to Digital Music News estimates, Spotify pays artists between $. “If you touch one of these screens, Spotify takes 50 cents straight out of the artist’s pocket.” “Basically, artists will have to pay to show their * own fans * that they have released new music.” “We have been given access to the new Campaigns beta feature,” an artist recently shared, referring to Marquee. With an estimated 70,000+ artists uploading music to Spotify a day, that kind of approach apparently gets a big head start.Ĭonsequently, Marquee is going to cost you. In other words: Spotify will guide a potential fan to your music, without distractions from the rest of Spotify. This means that they can focus solely on your music and discover more about you. “When a listener clicks on a marquee, they are guided to their new release, and only their release. “Marquee is a sponsored full-screen recommendation of their new release for Spotify Free and Premium listeners who have shown an interest in their music and have the potential to listen to more,” explains Spotify. Here’s a look at the alert a typical fan would receive. Instead, Spotify vaguely notes that Marquee looks for listeners who have “shown an interest in your music and have the potential to listen to more.” Similarly, Spotify’s Marquee isn’t just targeting an artist’s followers, who already expect to receive updates when the artist releases new music. Marquee bears a strong resemblance to Facebook’s pay-per-promotion features, which charge publishers to reach their own audience, as well as specific viewers. It is quite possible that $ 0.50 is not the highest price per click charged. The price of $ 0.50 per click seems extreme, although at this point it’s unclear what Spotify’s price range is. It should be noted that many of these fans would willingly view the artist’s new music, either on their own or with the help of an organic (i.e. Screenshots of the new promotional campaign tool reveal that Spotify is taking up to $ 0.50 per click per user to show fans new music. Now, Spotify wants artists to pay to reach their existing fans through a beta “Marquee” push campaign feature.ĭisgruntled artist tweets reveal how Spotify’s new beta Marquee feature works. Photo Credit: Igal Ness Spotify is inventing even more ways to pay artists less, while charging them more.