Industry of Crooks- Destroying Artist Revenue

 CROOKS:

THIS WAS PROPHECIED IN BOOK ONE OF MAGNUM OPUS: THOSE SILENT

  This is a topic that other artists have brought up, but I have to say, it is one that needs to have a huge issue raised. I'm going to include an image here that I want you to look at:

  This is a revenue statement for my total artist sales, streaming and purchase, over the last few months. Somehow, publishing companies have, with all the advertisement funds they collect, scaled down what they pay the artist to actual microscopic fractions of a penny for each digital and physical transaction. How this is legal is beyond me, but this is a very top-heavy structure. It is disgusting, because I believe they have lowered the pay-rate exponentially in the past year. When I first began being published by CD-Baby, I was able to see royalty revenue over the course of a year range between $50 to $350. As of the past year, I have yet to receive a royalty payment, and currently have accrued only $24 over the last year and a half. And it is because of the scale you see hear. Some transactions are literally $0.00001. That is criminal and should not even be allowed by law.

  Think of all the cost that goes into producing an album. From equipment, to mastering, publishing, advertising and showcasing. Much of these costs actually get absorbed into the pockets of these same publishing companies and distributors, who have their back door deals that they keep secret. Every time you pay a membership to a company such as Spotify or Amazon, you are one of millions creating a revenue stream that dwarfs its cost of maintenance. The executives at the top and employees that sit twiddling their thumbs are able to receive salaries that are substantial, while the companies' stocks grow. And as an artist, you are not even a slight shareholder of any of this. We pay flat fees in order to have a publisher release our albums to the distributors and they split the pot. It would take near a decade of consistent distribution for me to see a return on my end, while well within that time, everyone else eats off of advertisement and my net sales.

  What needs to happen is a class action lawsuit. I've heard big name artists complain about this arrangement, and now I truly understand why. It isn't that I'm not getting sufficient streams. It's quite the contrary. I came to find that I have been getting a healthy amount of overseas sales and American sales. What I've seen done in the land of algorithms is blatantly illegal. If you look at the profile pages on a typical spotify page, they are structured to display numbers only when you surpass 1000 hits on a record. I tracked my movement on my artist account, and I found that they have suppressed my count completely and none of my tracks give a count, even though they surpass that number. In fact, that data only shows when I look at the raw data in the books. They do this in order to surpress my exposure and views. It's the same way they tailor Youtube. If you look for an artist such as myself, who hasn't played the "game", you'll actually find it is impossible to access things traditionally on search engines. They make it so that only direct links will work so that you can't grow your own revenue, while you keep producing just enough for them to rape you. 

  When I'm able, I'm going to launch an all-out attack on the industry, and I aim to do some damage.