In this article, we want to introduce one of the less understood areas of music streaming - how royalty payments work. We'll explain a bit about how payments work under the system that all streaming players have today and how we could make it fairer for all artists and content creators by switching to a “Artist Centric” payment model.
We want to encourage Deezer users to help us raise awareness of this issue with our newly launched #MakeStreamingFair initiative, as well as a website dedicated to a User-Centric Payment System (ACPS). You can find the website here.
How do streaming royalties work?
Today the music streaming industry distributes royalties based on a market share model. To put it simply - all streams on a streaming platform are added up, and artists get paid in proportion to how much their streams represent out of this combined total. This means popular artists and genres benefit over smaller local and niche acts. Smaller artists and more niche or local genres receive less than their fair share of the money, which, in turn, means that a lot of fans don’t directly support the diverse artists and genres they are actually streaming.
How to use Deezer’s ACPS website
To use our ACPS simulator you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. Before you start, make sure you log in to your Deezer Premium, Deezer Family or Deezer HiFi account on deezer.com.
Once you’ve signed into you account, you can now access our simulator, where you’ll be able to see your top five artists and exactly how much of your Deezer paid subscription today goes to artists you actually stream. The simulator also shows what would happen if a user centric payment system were in place in the future. You can compare the results and share on social media.
Note: If you are a Deezer Free user or don’t have an account, you can still visit our website to learn about the user-centric payment initiative, you just won’t be able to use the simulator.
Benefits of a Artist Centric payment system
Here are just a few of the advantages of switching to a user-centric payment model:
- A fairer system for a wide range of diverse local and international artists and genres
- Corrects distortions like age or listening habits (i.e. young users also tend to skip more,resulting in further distortion)
- Helps tackle streaming fraud and bot activities
Get involved
We’re encouraging music fans like you to explore our new website. Help us spread awareness of a more fair way of streaming and ACPS on social media with our #MakeStreamingFair hashtag. Share the site directly with your friends. And show love for your favourite artists!