interdependence
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Interdependence 10: Tom Gray (PRS #brokenrecord)
🕑 Added 2020-07-07 14:56:41 +0000 UTCThis week we talk to Director at PRS for music and Gomez songwriter Tom Gray, who, through the #brokenrecord hashtag and other advocacy work has been championing the need for reform the way that streaming services work, and reform copyright policy to better protect songwriters and producers.
We discuss the case for user centric streaming over the current pro-rata payment model, what is was like to witness the transition from sales to streaming as a successful touring band, and how, at a time when the song is earning the least amount it has ever earned, the expenses to develop the songs are being placed on the songwriter and producer more than ever before by labels and streaming. There are also some stories that border on ASMR, Tom has by far the best microphone we have encountered doing the podcast so far.
Links (if we ever mention anything in the pod you want a link to, leave a comment!)
Tom on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrtomgray?lang=en
PRS: https://www.prsformusic.com/
Ivors Academy: https://ivorsacademy.com/
Comments
Mat
Sounds likely! We will wait for updates :)
The Drake one hard to know if thats accurate or not. Yesterday on Spotify alone he did 18m streams. At low-ball maths at $3000 per million streams, the total paid to the owners of the master recordings earned $54k from Spotify yesterday. I believe Drake owns a lot of his own masters. So if we assume that he owns a third of those streamed yesterday, thats 6m streams a day just from Spotify = $18000. Over 365 days thats $6,570,000. If we're talking just the composer share from Spotify, then yeah its pitiful and it probably is roughly what Tom is saying. But it never breaks down as simply as the headline numbers then trumpeted. Its these huge volumes of streams that make big digital distributors and labels with extensive legacy catalogues so interesting to investors these days. I’m not defending Spotify nor accusing him of spreading inaccurate numbers. And Tom is right to have an issue with the deal he signed as Gomez which seems him probably get 18% of that master income, assuming his deals are recouped… for me those deals and the major labels lack of care to the artists signed under pre-streaming conditions - now that said labels are swimming in more (and sustained) cash than ever - is probably the bigger issue than just how streaming services themselves remunerate.
Great to hear from someone who saw the shift away from recorded music in real time as part of his career. The stats about the Beatles & Drake and what they make from streaming are really stark
