From More Perfect Union.

Why are so many artists struggling in a booming music industry? Over 600 million people globally have streaming subscriptions, with most of them paying about 12 bucks a month. And for musicians, it’s never been easier to release work into the world. But ease of access doesn’t mean things are becoming more fair. Streaming services like Spotify have so much power and influence. With a whole new world of corporate middlemen, an already highly consolidated industry has only become even more consolidated. Music today is a winner-takes-all economy. And the biggest winners of all aren’t even musicians.

To read Liz Pelly’s book Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist visit lizpelly.info/book

Correction: Artists report making, on average, only $0.003 to $0.005 per stream on the platform. In text-on-screen in our video, we wrote “.0035 cents per stream” where it should say “$0.0035 per stream”

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More Perfect Union is an Emmy-winning, nonprofit newsroom whose mission is to build power for working people. Here’s what that means: We report on the real struggles and challenges of the working class from a working-class perspective. We attempt to connect those problems to potential solutions. We report on the abuses and wrongdoing of corporate power. And we seek to hold accountable the ultra-rich who have too much power over America’s political and economic systems.

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