Abstract
Today, anyone with a smartphone or computer can access over 70 million songs in a matter of seconds. This has brought many positive and negative elements alike, yet the life of a struggling artist still remains an issue to this day. Digital Service Providers (DSPs: iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, etc.) give artists easy access to platforms with millions of potential listeners. The last six years (2015-2021) have brought an exponential boom in popularity and revenue to these services. However, despite the unprecedented success of these online platforms, royalty payments and fair compensation remain ongoing problems for many parties involved. This growing concern has sparked boycotts against the services and the need for an update in copyright/royalty laws. Therefore, I pose the questions: How can Music Streaming Services change the current pro-rata business model to establish a fair wage? What factors should influence the pricing of these wages? Would a royalty model change provide a sustainable option for the Service Providers? Compiled evidence from numerous reports, and information gathered from DSP user databases, suggest a possible answer to these questions may lie with a ‘per-subscriber’ based system. A shift towards a user-centric model would help retain current artists by shifting funds from the consumers directly to the artists they spend their time listening to. The result would entice other artists to join, and attract new subscribers. Further study shows potential updates to current software algorithms and promising use in fighting spam accounts used to generate fake views.
Key Words: Digital Service Provider (DSPs), Music Streaming Services, Pro-rata Model, User-centric design, Artists, Revenue
