The question of how much artists earn from Spotify has raised its head again, courtesy of an article in today’s Guardian. The piece, by Sam Leith, brings nothing new to the table, rehashing the Lady Gaga Poker Face 1 million plays = $167 claim, which has already been discredited. Much more interesting is the debate it triggers, which continues into the comments. Is Spotify to blame, or is it the record companies?

Also worth looking at is the How much do music artist earn online infographic by David McCandless, which estimates that artists need 4,549,020 plays on Spotify to earn the US minimum wage of $1,160 per month. That figure doesn’t include publishing royalties paid to songwriters, which are included in the full spreadsheet of data. The infographic was inspired by a post at The Cynical Musician.

We’ve previously discussed the amount artists earn from Spotify, and pointed out that the way to make money is not by relying on royalties, but by using Spotify as a promotional tool to encourage physical sales, including merchandise and tickets.

UPDATE (1730): Spotify have responded to claims regarding the Lady Gaga track. Senior VP Paul Brown said the figure quoted was ‘misleading and is factually inaccurate’ as it was out of date and only represented a fraction of the royalties paid.

He explained that the figure quoted only related to royalties for Poker Face paid to Swedish collecting agency STIM on behalf of one of the song’s co-writers (Nadir Khayat) who is registered in that country. ‘This figure would only represent one of several revenue streams for the Lady Gaga track in only one country (ie. Sweden), at a time when Spotify had literally just launched,’ explained Brown.

Last.fm, the music recommendation service, has integrated ‘Play on Spotify’ links. The two services have long been working together, with Spotify offering the option to ‘scrobble’ tracks to Last.fm in order to build up your recommendation profile. Now, alongside information and video clips, users will be shown a link to listen to the track on Spotify.

The partnership with Spotify applies in the UK, France, Spain and most of Scandinavia, and Last.fm is also partnering with Hype Machine worldwide, and with MOG in the US. We7 and VEVO will be added soon, and users will see links appropriate to their territory.

At the same time as adding links to partner sites, Last.fm is retiring it’s on-demand streaming service. The popular radio service is not affected.

This looks like a positive move for users. Although we lose Last.fm’s streaming service, it couldn’t compete with Spotify’s. At the same time, Last.fm’s recommendation service is streets ahead of anything Spotify offers, so a continued partnership between the two sites is something to be applauded.

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