Music artist making pennies on platforms? What's Next?

Streaming began back in the 1990s when internet service providers provided movies, music game shows, tv shows to be streamed by the consumers at home. Streaming was either done with cable / Internet providers VOD, or aged old dial up with extreme lack of video quality not to mention the time to wait for the video to load.

I remember the days of Blockbuster & I also remember the days when Blockbuster was gone. In the early 2000s I remember Netflix DVDs delivered in the mail to watch movies & later added streaming services. Google created YouTube, and the list goes on to where we are today with other streaming platforms such as Hulu, Tubi and so many other streaming services. The music industry was along for the ride in this technology as well to allow consumers and fans to stream their favorite artists music on demand any time of day or night.

I remember Napster & how we would play mp3 music which was one of the trending things to do at the time. This was the way for many fans and consumers to not only find the music genre they were looking for but to play the music as often as they wanted.

Apple iTunes also started in the 2000s. I can recall a lot of things changed in the music industry when laws changed. There was a lawsuit with Metallica and Napster over Napster using copyrighted music of Metallica which is copyright infringement. Napster used file sharing on this P2P ( peer to peer ) platform to allow users to listen and download music.

Now this type of file sharing isn't illegal until it involves copyright infringement by allowing users to download artists' music. This changed the music industry for a long time. Readily available music at your fingertips was not uncommon back then even without the technology we have today such AI with faster servers , processors & data centers.

Fast forward to today - streaming platforms such as Spotify have taken on a new level in the music industry. Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music & YouTube music pay artists for streaming their music on their platforms. Over the past few years controversy arose on the low payouts to artists from streaming platforms. This sparked attention on social media and is changing how artists choose to make money from their music. 

There are so many variables involved in today's movement in the music industry for artists. The most concern is pay, then control over their hard work & artists created by AI. This may have a direct impact on streaming platforms. In July 2025, artist Deerhoof and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard an Australian rock band left Spotify due to CEO Daniel Ek's investment in allowing AI to make decisions for military defense. The artists wrote this on their IG story:

This sparked other artists to want to make the same or similar move, however every artist does not have that option. Artists who are signed by music or record labels often do not have that choice.  Record labels, producers or companies have more control over the artist’s catalog. The artist would most likely need to request permission to have their catalog removed from any streaming service. This would most likely cause an expensive legal battle in the long run. 

Another popular artist who removed their catalog from Spotify was Taylor Swift. In 2014 Taylor Swift left Spotify due to the lack of compensation for artists and creators on Spotify’s free tier model. Taylor's management team did not want Taylor Swift’s 1989 album on Spotify’s streaming service, however Spotify denied the request. Taylor then removed her entire catalog. In 2017 Taylor put her catalog back on Spotify.

Streaming users are also jumping ship from Spotify to YouTube Music according to this Reddit post just 25 days ago from writing this article.

Another artist on YouTube - KWE  speaks about not “Dropping his album on Spotify”. KWE mentions in his You Tube video. "Some people might consider me to be successful based off objective data, over 30 million streams on all platforms, viral Tik Tok songs that have generated 673 million views on the app, wrote songs for mainstream artists that I am not allowed to say” KWE also says all of these accomplishments does not pay his bills. You would think that millions of views and streams would result in a decent payout for artists on streaming platforms. 

Let’s not forget artists such as The Weekend & Ed Sheeran who were the first to have billion streams amongst other artists on Spotify  who have Guinness World Records.

The call to action by music artists vs streaming services does not mean that the technology isn’t superb, but artists who are passionate about their work and who they align themselves with are very important to them.

Let’s look at Spotify’s streaming services for artists and their monetization policies. 

According to Spotify their policies on streaming & monetization for artists were updated as of April 2024. Here are some facts about policies for artists and royalties on Spotify.

The new Spotify monetization policy is clear. In order to be included in the stream share    ( how artists are paid and how revenue is split based on a pool ) tracks have to meet certain thresholds as shown below from Spotify’s website. 

• Starting in April 2024, tracks must have reached a threshold of at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months to be included in the recorded music royalty pool calculation.

• There's also a minimum number of unique listeners required for a track to become eligible to ensure users can’t game the system by streaming the track hundreds of times in order to qualify. We don't share this number publicly to prevent further manipulation by bad actors.

• Tracks with between 1 and 1,000 annual streams generate $0.03 per month on average and only represent 0.5% of total streams and royalties generated from Spotify. In the aggregate though, that money adds up to tens of millions of dollars per year.

The frustration of artists over the years is high. As we have reviewed previously with the artists KWE who made it clear he was not putting his album on Spotify due to the low payouts, we can see based on the updated policy by Spotify why artists may not want to put their album on Spotify. Having to meet 1,000 streams in a 12 month period on Spotify before being able to be included in the royalty pool at $0.03 can be less than what Door Dash or Uber may pay to a Gig worker. It may not be worth it. The other eligibility criteria is the minimum number of unique listeners on Spotify that has to be reached. This number is not for the public.

Why does all this matter to you? In this case study we focus on music, artists & streaming. Business intelligence plays a crucial role in streaming music. The data obtained from databases such as Power BI or Tableau allows platforms to analyze the data strategically based on music genre’s, location of the most streams, how often users are listening to certain artists, tracking users behaviors, analyzing popular genres, using meta data to track and analyze trends, analyzing how & what users are listening to and so much more. 

The more artists that are on the platform the more payouts along with subscriptions to these streaming platforms. If artists start to pull away, or are strategically pushed out based on royalty payouts & other factors such as criteria that may not pay enough to keep the lights on, artists will start to become innovative to sustain their art & connect with their fans.

As a business your priority is the consumer. The consumer pays your bills and keeps your business afloat & keeps your investors happy. In some cases pay off your loans. The negative behaviors of your consumers to your bottom line is something you want to prevent or if it happens - fix it.

If you are seeing a drop in a certain product, or decrease in subscriptions, you must analyze the data you have ( sales, social media, products, pricing, politics, lawsuits, packaging, shipping, manufacturing, distributions, etc.) to determine the problem and work to create a strategy based on the DATA not your hunch but the data. This is vital as we have seen with the example of Spotify and their updated policies affecting artists' decisions to not join the platform. 

The future is uncertain, however if artists are not paid enough on streaming platforms what is the future for the platform? If operating costs, payroll expenses are costly for the business, companies will start making the best decisions to get ahead of the expenses and costs - today that will be AI. In the age of AI, artists can be replaced with AI music artists on these streaming platforms. 

Let’s take for example one of the popular AI artists streaming on Spotify The Velvet Sundown  which is a 60s band who streamed 1M streams on Spotify in a few weeks. There was controversy over the authenticity of this band for a while "Initially, the “band”, described as “a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction”, denied they were an AI creation, and released two albums in June called Floating On Echoes and Dust And Silence, which were similar to the country folk of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. ( The Guardian, 2025).  It was later confirmed that the band was created on Suno’s platform which left a nasty taste in people’s mouths for not admitting when people questioned that the band & promotions & story line was AI. Suno is an AI platform where you can create any song, in any genre, in minutes using AI. 

AI platforms like Suno also allow you to create music just by typing in a few words. For example I created a song by typing “ An RNB song about business intelligence for small businesses” You can listen here. This is also on the free version of Suno. This took me less than 5 minutes to create & publish. While we are in the era of AI & people are losing jobs, the future of the music industry is at stake.

Spotify had an interesting quarter early this year. Although their revenue were $4.19 billion. Spotify's stock took a hit & dropped 11% on July 29, 2025. After researching the cause of Spotify's stock drop earlier this year, the below information shed some clarity.

• Streaming Services, Costs, Revenue & Monetization

  • The 11% drop were in the billions 

  • Loss per share: 42 euro cents vs. earnings of 1.90 euros expected

  • Revenue: $4.19 billion euros vs. $4.26 billion expected

• Although the future of AI is here & music artists can now be AI music artists, streaming platforms that are monetized will need a better strategy to keep human artists around. On July 29, 2025 according to CNBC Spotify had its worst day in the market in two years by dropping more than 11%.

• “Spotify shares dropped after the music streaming platform fell short of Wall Street’s revenue expectations and swung to a loss.” ( CNBC, 2025).

• Third-quarter guidance also came up short and ad-supported revenues dipped 1% from a year ago.

• Spotify’s CEO Daniel Elk response to the loss “ Spotify said higher personnel, marketing and professional services costs and $115 million euros worth of what it called social charges contributed to the results” ( CNBC, 2025) 

• According to the Motley Fool, Spotify's revenue fell short in their operating income in the second quarter at $415 million which was below management's guidance of $615 million. 

Although according to the second quarter report on Spotify they have increased their subscribers year/year to 12% and up $276 million. Monthly active users grew 11% Y/Y to $676 million. Total monthly revenue has increased Y/Y to $4.2 billion in euros. Gross Margin improved YoY to 31.5%. Operating Income reached $406 million in euros 

Why am I focusing so much on revenue increases, revenue losses, strategy & business intelligence?

The future of any category, tech, beauty, music, real estate, relies on business intelligence for all of these variables and so much more for sustainability, predictive analysis & the state of their business. If today’s music industry is changing by the second, everyone who is in the music business whether you are an artist, producer or AR ( Artists and Repertoire) needs to be aware that the music industry is shifting. Adjusting your strategy to pivot so you can sustain is the most important. Music labels, streaming companies will need a plan when the legal systems change for AI. Right now AI has a few limitations but not enough to stop AI music that influences harm or its AI artist to make rap songs, RNB or any other genre. 

Laws in the future can directly create thresholds and bands on certain things AI can & cannot do. For example in the case with Atlanta rapper Young Thug where District Attorney Fani Willis charged & jailed Young Thug & other rap artists on alleged RICO charges. The DA’s office claimed the rapper lyrics were about violent crimes in his songs. The DA allegedly had direct evidence that connected the artists rap songs to actual violent crimes in Atlanta. Young Thug was imprisoned for almost 2 years before taking a plea deal in October 2024. Young Thug was later released on October 31, 2024 with 15 years of probation. 

Today AI cannot be charged with any violent crime such as the previous charges of Young Thug, however the user, the company and even the developer can face penalties for infringements. There are already copyright and infringement laws in place today with AI that protects human beings. Such as you cannot take a picture of a human being & upload it to an AI system and start creating content off of the person's image. This can be an infringement of someone's copyright. In addition, the FBI also warns of other crimes such as voice & video cloning where scammers pretend to be a business such as Equifax or the IRS.

The only legal way is permission from the owner of the picture or video to use their picture. For example if a human artist signs a likeness deal with a label or company who creates AI artists & you give them permission to then your likeness will be used with AI.. 

• Next steps for Music Artist in the AI era

  • The market is promising for cassette players. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR ) calculates the average annual growth rate over a specific period ( long time period ). As of September 2025 according to archive market research the CAGR for cassette players “are expected to reach $850 million with a CAGR of 7.5% by 2033” ( Archive Market Research, 2025) 

  • Why does this matter? CAGR is how investors measure long term growth with various forms of investments such as stocks. It is also used to compare growth rates of their other investments. CAGR is just one way to measure growth for any market. 

• The best strategy for a music artist is to learn AI & create an AI version of themselves with their music & create tangible products where fans can listen to their music anytime even without the Internet.

• Artist KWE created Phyzi. Phyzi looks like a debit card but it has a twist. This card can connect with your via USB-C or to your computer or other device that uses USB. Once you buy KWE's album is yours and you have access to all the files to use at anytime. You do not have to stream to listen. It is downloaded on your phone with full music and videos with KWE's limited time deal on his website.

• Another option is selling tangible items such as cd’s & cassette tapes. Cassette players are still being sold. Tik Tok Shop has a cassette player & recorder for less than $40 dollars. as you can see below at the time of this case analysis. In the next picture you can see the price history is increasing.  Cassette tape was first issued in 1962 by Phillips in Berlin. The portable Sony Walkman was developed in 1979,  As of September 2025 according to archive market research the CAGR for cassette players “are expected to reach $850 million with a CAGR of 7.5% by 2033” ( Archive Market Research, 2025)  

• Another option that artists can implement is YouTube. YouTube currently has $8.12M subscribers at the time of this analysis. Artists can join the YouTube Partner Program and become monetized after meeting certain eligibility requirements. This also includes being monetized on YouTube as an AI artist. This strategy with YouTube focusing on creating spaces for artists will set them apart when streaming platforms & artists disagree. 

As you can see in this case analysis the reality that the music industry is changing is very real. Not only do corporations have to make strategic moves, so do you as an entrepreneur or small and medium sized business. It is inevitable if you want to sustain systems being used with AI and created with AI.

Times are changing fast & your strategy should be built around AI, business intel & technology to stay afloat. 

What would you do next in the music & streaming category?

Case Study: B002

Bianca Renee - M.S.C.S

The Guru of Business Intelligence 

The Guru of Business Intelligence Copyright 2025