The hottest Royalties Substack posts right now

Streaming payouts are massively concentrated, with a tiny share of tracks getting nearly all the money while most tracks earn nothing.
Per-stream payments are extremely small — artists often receive only a fraction of a cent per play — so even millions of streams usually don’t produce a livable income.
Systemic change is needed, like laws requiring platforms to pay musicians directly per stream, and that will take fans, music workers, and artists organizing and supporting reform.

A non-profit project scraped Spotify’s metadata and audio, and Spotify publicly labeled that project as an “anti-copyright extremist.”
Spotify now withholds royalties from tracks with fewer than 1,000 annual streams, leaving roughly 175 million of about 202 million tracks without payments from the platform.
The situation highlights a clash: a huge, profit-driven streaming company that changed royalty rules versus a nonprofit focused on preserving and providing open access to culture, both positioned as opposing traditional copyright in different ways.

Universal Music Group is the largest music company in the world with revenue of over €10B in 2022.
The highest earning song by royalties globally is 'Happy Birthday' by the Hill Sisters.
On Spotify, artists need many streams to earn $1,000, as they only earn $0.003 per stream.

Joined Chit Chat Money Podcast to discuss State of the Music Industry
Talked about streaming royalties, independent artist experience, labels, streaming platforms, and AI
Expressed gratitude for support and growth of over 5,000 subscribers

Setting the price for a self-published book involves considering market factors and personal ethics.
Authors often make more royalties selling books online, like Amazon, compared to through bookstores.
Charging more for books might increase royalty percentages but could also impact potential buyers' willingness to pay.

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Spotify plans to stop paying royalties for tracks with less than 1,000 streams a year.
This change may widen the gap between successful and struggling artists.
Musicians' voices are crucial in shaping the future of streaming platforms.

ARM's royalty revenue faces challenges with declines in smartphone sales and RISC-V gaining share in embedded markets.
AI trend shifts workloads from CPUs to specialized hardware, posing a challenge to ARM's value capture.
ARM is expanding and investing in compute capabilities, but questions arise regarding the outcomes of these efforts, especially in the face of evolving industry dynamics.