I have the pain/pleasure of doing royalties for Audiomack. I think for any DSP the biggest issue with switching to another payment model is just operational burden, especially for smaller companies. The thought of rebuilding our royalty system makes me shudder in fear
Absolutely, hence my caveat that not all labels would be in favour of the user-centric approach. I have a hazy memory of someone suggesting that doing so would just send their systems into a meltdown, such was the exponential increase of processing needed to figure that all out.
All that being said, my chief complaint is more that at the point where these alternative models were being give a chance to prove themselves, Universal have somewhat stomped in and demanded its own approach be the one adopted, doubtless leveraging its market clout to do so. Given the models now being adopted by Deezer and Spotify - I feel, both at Universal's behest - I'd argue that has basically killed any chance of alternative models getting a moment to shine here.
I think what really bugs me is that the user-centric model *does* feel like the right one, at least in the way SoundCloud has deployed it. It worked better for artists, and ensured a far more egalitarian system that might help new talent build audiences and, crucially, earn meaningful money to allow them to spend more time on that growth process. So to then see Universal's "Reverse Robin Hood" system take flight, soon followed by Spotify's sub-1,000 plays move (which we all know will gently rise up from that 1,000 number, most likely to something 10x that) is pretty depressing.
I have the pain/pleasure of doing royalties for Audiomack. I think for any DSP the biggest issue with switching to another payment model is just operational burden, especially for smaller companies. The thought of rebuilding our royalty system makes me shudder in fear
Absolutely, hence my caveat that not all labels would be in favour of the user-centric approach. I have a hazy memory of someone suggesting that doing so would just send their systems into a meltdown, such was the exponential increase of processing needed to figure that all out.
All that being said, my chief complaint is more that at the point where these alternative models were being give a chance to prove themselves, Universal have somewhat stomped in and demanded its own approach be the one adopted, doubtless leveraging its market clout to do so. Given the models now being adopted by Deezer and Spotify - I feel, both at Universal's behest - I'd argue that has basically killed any chance of alternative models getting a moment to shine here.
I think what really bugs me is that the user-centric model *does* feel like the right one, at least in the way SoundCloud has deployed it. It worked better for artists, and ensured a far more egalitarian system that might help new talent build audiences and, crucially, earn meaningful money to allow them to spend more time on that growth process. So to then see Universal's "Reverse Robin Hood" system take flight, soon followed by Spotify's sub-1,000 plays move (which we all know will gently rise up from that 1,000 number, most likely to something 10x that) is pretty depressing.