“Labels have found a new way to put artists in a position where they seem to be making a lot of money, but they essentially own nothing”: Rick Beato and Anthony Fantano discuss the impact of Spotify and streamingMusic critic and content creator Anthony Fantano has shared his thoughts on the streaming model in a new in-depth conversation with Rick Beato.
With artists making less than a penny per stream on most streaming platforms, the business model is continually brought under fire, with the largest platform, Spotify, facing the most criticism. In its Loud & Clear annual report for 2024, Spotify spoke of the “paradox” of the modern music industry, where it said “the sheer volume of uploaders” to its platform “means the fraction who find success appears smaller over time”.

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Spotify has also said it doesn’t pay artists directly, but pays rights holders instead. In general, it says it pays them roughly two thirds of every dollar it makes from music. To support its report, it also released a video on “how the money flows” – you can watch it below:

In his discussion with Beato, Fantano explains his frustrations with Spotify in particular: “We’ve done lots of videos about Spotify that deal in the ongoing monetary squeeze that they’re doing on artists. The fact that they kind of sit there and continue to act like, ‘We’re paying artists as much as we can, we can’t pay them anymore.’ They pass the buck over to the labels as well.”
He adds, “Meanwhile, [Spotify CEO] Daniel Ek and other people who are at the top at Spotify are cashing out their stock to the tunes of 10s of millions of dollars multiple times a year. The major labels have an investment in Spotify as well, so they have a monetary interest in the platform succeeding.”
Fantano also refers to a book he’s been reading on the life of rapper MF DOOM, which gives insight into how the music industry used to work back in the 1990s: “It discussed the first deal he and his brother had gotten when they were in this rap group called KMD. Their deal was, like, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“As you know, back in the day when you would get those kinds of deals, it would be a lot of money up front, but then simultaneously, you’re getting charged for the studio time. You’re getting charged for this by the label. And essentially you get nickel and dime to the point where you don’t recoup anything. This is just like the new version of that,” he says of streaming.
“It’s like the labels have found a new way to put artists in a position to where it seems like they’re making a lot of money up front, they’re getting a lot of access, there’s a lot of potential there. But then they turn around and they essentially own nothing, and they’ve made nothing.” He later concludes, “The only people at this point who could do anything and shut off the faucet are the rights holders, and they’re not saying no. They’re fully on the train, they’re throwing coal into the steam engine.”
You can watch the full video from Beato and Fantano below:

When faced with criticism over its payout model, Spotify has, on numerous occasions lately, blamed the amount of money that artists receive on the deals they have signed with rights holders. When Kate Nash recently said, “We’re paid very, very, very poorly and unethically for our recorded music,” the company told the singer to look at the payment terms she has with her label and other rights holders.
“Spotify has no visibility over the deals that Kate signed with her rights’ holders. Therefore, we have no knowledge of the payment terms that were agreed upon between her and her partners,” it said.
“We do know that British artists generated revenues of over £750 million on Spotify alone in 2023, a number that is on the rise year on year. So it’s disappointing to hear that Spotify’s payments are not making it through to Kate herself.”
Take a look at Spotify’s full Loud & Clear Report.
The post “Labels have found a new way to put artists in a position where they seem to be making a lot of money, but they essentially own nothing”: Rick Beato and Anthony Fantano discuss the impact of Spotify and streaming appeared first on MusicTech.