Yeah that's the way. I kinda connect it to social media views and youtube views. Taking the minimum wage paycheck (1400 bucks) for 2.2 million views means you're definitely up there with views. OR, you have a tailored subscriber base that you every now and then sell smaller products to (that they need or want) for as little as 5 bucks each. If you get 300 conversions out of the people who consume your content and like it, then you literally make more just because you have an actual product. Monetizing is a cherry on top, but it won't substitute the ice cream or banana in the banana split and that's facts. All I know is I've only made 15 dollars from streaming. And not to get into real numbers but I'm no huge artist, but I've at least 20 to 25 X'd that once I started merch plus my pay what you want.  ... View more

it’s as simple as understanding who or what is gonna be helping your career be financially supported. Is it going to be either  A sync licensing B fans that want to pay for concerts, early projects, exclusive experiences, merchandise, etc. C Consistent gigs D any other creative place you can get money from (sponsorships, working with businesses, recording artists, etc).   The one place we have to understand will keep us trapped thinking we won’t get paid is the streaming services.  My simplest best advice that I’m following right now is to simply operate as a business and not just an artist. Unless you plan on signing everything away to somebody for the pennies to the dollar you could get. (With the right work ethic) ... View more

Yes. To explain further, streaming pays .003 cents a stream. A shirt from myself costs 25 dollars with a cost of 13 dollars. Each shirt sold is 12 dollars. That’s like 4000 streams, something I’ve only reached on one song alone. I’ve sold 50 shirts. You can do the math. So I believe if we focus on operating as a business (bundling our releases as products w/ exclusive things like vinyls, signed things, private concerts online, etc) as long as we have an actual fanbase (and means of contacting them on email, text or social media) we just have to give them ways to support. They might already want to support but they just don’t know how or think streaming is supporting us financially when it really isn’t. I think artists go wrong by thinking they can make good money without understanding a business makes real money. An individual operating without understanding of providing an experience / product will not be able to make much besides the pennies from Spotify. ... View more

So I’m not active on here however this is a question I think needs answering. The artists that are actually paid are the ones that don’t overlook the fans that want to directly support them by buying merchandise, their music projects, and experiences offered with it. I ran my first pay what you want campaign last month and it may have only brought in an extra 70 bucks. But given that I only sold my project to 8 of my fans and didn’t fully execute as planned, that 70 is a good baseline to keep increasing each campaign. If you wanna get paid as an artist operate as a business. Streaming will give you little to nothing. Focusing on giving fans that love you and the music you make an experience they will pay to get and support, will result in making way more. My 70 bucks would have needed a ton of streams to even get close to making. If we wanna make cents let’s focus on the places that truly make sense to make money. Streaming platforms are the biggest scam to getting paid as an artist ... View more