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Does anybody use it? I know Bola was an early user with his Peel Charts but I can't remember the last time anybody mentioned it and recent stories suggesting bands get pennies compensation from thousands of people listening to their tracks on it suggests it's not working.

That said Pink Floyd have just adopted it.

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Mod Supreme, Demon Headmaster

I use it, though not loads 'cos I find the adverts a bit annoying, but I think it's pretty decent. My missus uses it a lot.

I also get revenue from Spotify from some of the releases in Thee SPC catalogue. I think the talk of bands getting pennies is perhaps missing the point. By coincidence I got my latest statement today so I can give you some solid figures:

In June, Band X (anonymity to protect the innocent!) had 448 streams and we got paid £1.48. This is net of the 18% taken by our aggregator service. So the label and band get 74p each. Yep, that's pennies. However, the label has wound down and the band don't officially exist any more. Neither party are doing any PR, gigs, events. We're basically getting paid for doing nothing. It's a nice slow return on our original investment and, frankly, better than nothing.

Scale this up for bigger bands than the relatively obscure Band X and it starts to look better. Say you had a band who split up 20 years ago, but still have a cult following. They might get 100,000 streams a month, which is £300 in the bank for doing nothing. Surely that's a good thing?

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Pin It On Badges

My mate uses it for everything. He's got the paid service though. I would use the free service and sometimes do - but getting send so many links to review I don't really have time.

Surely it's better for a band to get pennies from someone streaming their music off there than it is for them making nothing by putting stuff on Bandcamp and SoundCloud?

I use those sites more because I get sent loads (and there are no ads) plus loads of bands stream their entire albums on one or both platforms. So it's their choice to make it free to stream.

I think Spotify is still all running as usual - there are just a few new services which have started and are potential competition apparently. I think Google started something. I haven't looked at any of them!

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Definitely isn't inbred...has the GCSEs to prove it!

REVOLUTION PURITY LOVE SUICIDE ACCURACY

http://www.thesoundofconfusion.com

My statement has payments (admittedly only small change!) from several streaming services, some i've not even heard of:

Xbox streaming
Rhapsody
We7
Simfy
Medianet
Bloom FM (wha..?)
Cricket (?!)
Deezer (they're just making up names now)

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Pin It On Badges

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Definitely isn't inbred...has the GCSEs to prove it!

REVOLUTION PURITY LOVE SUICIDE ACCURACY

http://www.thesoundofconfusion.com

Yep. I am a premium user so I can use it on my phone, squeezebox, Roku etc. Whilst I like making playlists I also use it for determining what to buy with my limited pennies these days but that said I buy more and more from bandcamp these days due to space issues and the fact bandcamp sells FLAC files. Soundcloud has just brought out the My cloud player of which my first impressions are wow espcially as the mobile app caches tracks for offline listening.

http://mycloudplayers.com/

They also have a mixer version for dj's!

http://mycloudplayers.com/dj/

As for musicians receiving pennies this is a good read http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/8993-the-cloud/

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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Nah, whenever I look for something it's not there. Not that I look much.

I sometimes think stuff is, but it turns out Spotify is just playing it from my itunes. Which I presume doesn't attract any royalities or Darren's due .001p for me trying to find Charles E Cullen on it the other day. I was trying to persuade BSP to play Real Nice Fat Girl on 6music...

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Pukka Pie pest

Embrace the margin
Always Changing at Retford http://sptxx.tumblr.com/
Not Changing at Retford http://sptxx2.tumblr.com/

I think Bragg hits the nail on the head far more than Thom Yorke did.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... st-payouts

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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Has something against Spotify...

As a fan of music I disagree that spotify is a terrible thing. For the price of two and a bit pints I get unlimited music on a monthly basis. For a start I get to hear more and thus purchase more although bandcamp takes most of my money these days!

Oddbox does not produce large runs Trev so when a release sells out who can hear the tracks apart from those who buy it after you leave Spotify? Or will they be available digitally once the physical product sells out?

Oh and what record Trev?

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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Has something against Spotify...

I love RTP but I'm amazed a) you sold 500 copies of a CD and b) actually thought you might be able to sell 1000. No relection on you, Trev, as if anyone can sell it you can. How many were Jiffy bags from you and how many sold through band or third parties like shops?

As for Spotify, I hate it. I'm not a fan of any digital form, least of all one that's entirely geared towards making profits for the medium rather than the performer.

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Mod Supreme, Demon Headmaster

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Has something against Spotify...

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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Fair enough, Bola. I tend to forget about the hassle of space. I have waaaaay too many CDs and records - two rooms full and I really should prune them a lot more than the half arsed attempts I've managed so far - but the missus is a very tolerant person and doesn't seem to mind not having a dining room or store room. For a start, there's very little punk/new wave/indie I listen to these days so 90% of that lot could go without fear. My problem is I know how much I paid for them and lobbing out multiple £10 CDs for pennies hurts too much (plus I still want to open a record shop when I retire).

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Mod Supreme, Demon Headmaster

I've used Spotify for years but I've always been conflicted by it. I pay for it rather than using the free version. The strange thing I usually use it to play music which I've actually got because all of my iTunes stuff is usually on an external hard drive which I can't be bothered to plug in so... I run my laptop through some speakers via Spotify because it's the most convenient way of accessing music. Although we've got a better iPod dock now - Spotify is still the best way of navigating around I find. Obviously this will change if more and more artists remove their stuff from it.

So yeah still can't work out what my opinion of it is. I've heard smaller artists/musicians argue both in favour and against it so... fuck knows.

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Looks like Elijah Wood. Supports Liverpool. Likes Coldplay.

Not directly related to Spotify, but related to issues of remuneration for musicians, I liked Whitey's reply to a TV production company that asked to use some of his music for free. The production company have since backtracked, claiming it was always their intention to pay. Either way Whitey's diatribe hits the nail on the head.



With regards to Spotify, I tried it once, but the first ten or so tracks I looked for weren't on there so I gave up.

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Curmudgeonly Rock 'n' Roll time traveller from ye olden days

2nd verse same as the 1st...

Yeah I read about that. Sad thing is I have no idea who Whitey is.

Back onto Streaming I have tried Grooveshark (which seems to be a pirated copy of Spotify) as well as the likes of Deezer. Streaming isn't going to die now espcially as you can sync your collections to the cloud.

I seem to steam everything now music or TV. Waiting for my broadband provider to complain!

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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Curmudgeonly Rock 'n' Roll time traveller from ye olden days

2nd verse same as the 1st...

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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