Evilbob93 t1_j3026fx wrote on January 5, 2023 at 3:06 AM

Reply to comment by Loive in In 1930s, Music Defense League launched a campaign against recorded sound in movie and live theaters, claiming that numerous musicians would lose their jobs if "canned music" was preferred over live recordings. by Profanion

Writing a hit song is definitely a license to print money for someone. It gets its own stream that only goes to one place, basically. A given performance isn't compensated nearly as well because it has to be split between more than one person usually.

You could still make that, but it's harder to get something that has staying power or that stands out that much. Oh yeah, and lawyers.

Loive t1_j30uhun wrote on January 5, 2023 at 7:24 AM

The most streamed song ever on Spotify is Blinding Lights by The Weeknd, with 3.3 billion streams. Only that one and Shape of You by Ed Sheeran has reached 3 billion streams, so they are the heaviest hitters with a wide margin.

Payment per stream varies a bit, but on average it is 0.004 cents per stream. That means Blinding Lights has earned about 13 million dollars on Spotify. The record company has of course taken a big share of that, while the rest would be split between the 5 writers. Thus the would end up with about $2 million each, before taxes. Certainly good sum of money, but not enough to live on for the rest of your life.

There are of course more streaming services, but they are all smaller than Spotify so there might be about the same amount coming from them if you add it all up.