Followups: Spotify “fake artist” speaks, SoundCloud, more audiophile networking.

• In the comments of Music Business Worldwide‘s terrible Spotify “fake artists” story, one of said “fake” artists, Cospe, speaks up:
  

  I make music for Epidemic Sound.

  In the past, I pitched songs for major record labels and publishers.
  Lots of work for free, because “that’s how the industry works”.

  If I got lucky one of my songs got pitched to an artist. Then they get 50%, a co-producer gets 25% and I am left with 25% of which my publisher wants half.
  Then the label pitches the song/pays to radio stations and Spotify curators, music supervisors etc to get it out there.

  Epidemic give me money up front for each song, and then 50/50 of the streaming revenue.

  I get to make my own music, with my own style, with me as an artist.

  Whats wrong with that?

  edit: A friend of mine works at Spotify and he was surprised to know that we get 50/50. According to him none of the major record companies are close to that with their so-called “real” artists.

  I was also very skeptical to Epidemic in the beginning, but having seen both sides, I think the traditional publishers and labels exploit artists the most.

  As Alan Cross points out:

  By the way, based on 500 million streams–an estimate of the number of streams by these artists–the amount of money Spotify would be saving by controlling these songs would amount to about $3 million. That’s nothing to a company where revenues top $3 billion.

  We eagerly await the searing MBW expose on Kevin Spacey as a FAKE ACTOR!! because he’s paid by FAKE NETWORK!! Netflix to be in FAKE SHOW!! House Of Cards, instead of Netflix getting its content from Hollywood as God intended. Did you notice how this “popular” show only shows up on Netflix? VERY SUSPICIOUS!!

• The Hard Times: Major Tech Startup Can’t Make Living From Music, Either. “I bet the bigwigs at SoundCloud are just begging to move back in with their parents right now.”

• Admittedly this was the obvious next thing. The World’s First Audiophile Network Interface!

The book is released in a week. I have until Thursday to upload it to Amazon, though I’d better make that Wednesday just to be sure. I have last reports in from the beta-readers, and it’s clear I need to split Chapter 7 into two. I have nearly beaten Calibre into not being horrible garbage. OH GOD WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE. And then after the ebook’s uploaded I need to get the paperback layout in order. So, ah, don’t expect a flood of Rocknerd posts …