Because we are deeply involved in the music industry as supporters of music education scholarships, we feel that it is our duty to repost this information to share with all of our readers.

College level music students already face incredible economic challenges in paying back their student loans after graduation. This scenario is even more critical when the digital, online model for listening to music (subscription streaming services being a fast growing segment) does not pay them a fair share for their recorded efforts.

It’s shocking to learn that a musician would earn the US minimum wage of $1,160/month on Spotify only if they can get over 4 million streaming plays per month.

It’s more critical than ever (for those of us who can) to make a year-end tax-deductible donation to support music education scholarships.

Please read this article (originally posted by David McCandless on www.informationisbeautiful.net), and share it.

HOW MUCH DO MUSIC ARTISTS EARN ONLINE?

APRIL 13, 2010

Recently, the UK government passed The Digital Economy Act which included many, perhaps draconian, measures to combat online music piracy (including withdrawing broadband access for persistent pirates).

Much was proclaimed about how these new laws would protect musicians and artists revenue and livelihoods.

But how much money do musicians really get paid in this new digital marketplace?

This image is based on an excellent post at The Cynical Musician called The Paradise That Should Have Been about pitiful digital royalties. (Thanks to Neilon for pointing that out). I’ve taken his calculations and added a few more.

As ever, this was incredibly difficult to research. Industry figures are hard to get hold of. Some are even secret. Last.Fm’s royalty and payment system is beyond comprehension. (If you can explain it to me, please get in touch)

Note: these figures do not include publishing royalties (paid to composers of songs). The full spreadsheet of data does though. You can see all the numbers and sources here:http://bit.ly/DigitalRoyalty

SOURCES: THECYNICALMUSICIAN.COM, DIGITAL AUDIO INSIDER, BASCA.ORG.UK,PRSFORMUSIC.COM, MUSICALLY.COM
 DATA: DIGITAL ROYALTIES
 RESEARCH: DAVID MCCANDLESS, CAROLINE FLYN, TOBY SLATER, JAMES KEY
 DESIGN: DAVID MCCANDLESS
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