My CDs are distributed to various outlets via one company. They make sure that my music is available through all of the popular streaming services and can be downloaded through a couple of others. All of the revenue generated funnels through them into my account. The amount of money generated is very small. Enough so that at times I just laugh and shake my head. One song was recently streamed and put $0.0002 into my account. Yep! You read that right. It would take 50 listens to put one penny in my account.
It's tempting to get angry at these various companies but it would do no good. There are many reasons that the numbers are what they are. I just look at it from a different angle. My music has been heard all around the world. I've been played in Europe, the Orient, and throughout the Americas. That's very humbling and I'm extremely grateful.
As I think of this I'm reminded that this is pretty much how the music business worked back in the day. Recordings only made money for others, rarely for the artists. The Beatles kind of changed that with "Sgt. Peppers..." and we thought the change was forever. Turns out it wasn't. Just like before, if you want to make money today you need to perform live.
To be sure, there are a handful of artists today who can actually make money from streaming services. They are the popular music and hip-hop artists who have huge fan bases and can deliver big, and I mean really big, numbers. My numbers are pretty puny, but the accumulated efforts of my five CDs generated about $100.00 this past year. Not too bad for an unknown classical artist.
Recently I've been asked if I'm going to record any more CDs. My answer right now is "No". The cost associated with it, as well as the time and effort required, make it hard to justify. If I played concerts then I might consider it. People will buy CDs as a souvenir. But I'm a guitar teacher who occasionally plays at weddings. There are no concerts in my immediate future.
I do however make home recordings and put them online. You can find me on Soundcloud (rhumphrey223) and on YouTube. Actually you can listen to all of my CDs for free on YouTube (roger humphrey - topic) and Spotify. Although I don't get paid much, I do get paid every time you listen to a song. That's a little self-serving I know. But if only 50 of you listen....