A note on the streaming revenue conversation you were having.
Spotify doesn’t pay the same across the board it depends on a lot of factors and it works against artists like Louis, who proportionally get paid less.
Spotify pays a percentage of their net revenue (so the money they make after paying for their expenses). I don’t think the exact percentage of net revenue they pay is known but I heard it’s about 50%.
Q1 revenue for Spotify was €3B. I have no way of knowing what the net revenue is, so I’m just gonna run with €3B, but it’s significantly less than that. So 50% is €1.5B.
Off that, they have two types of royalties.
1. Recording Royalties are distributed to the “rightsholders” depending on what % of total streams their activity represents. Rightsholders = label or distributor. In Louis’ case, BMG is licensed for FITF, so them. In Harry’s case, Columbia.
Rightsholders then have individual agreements with each artist. Harry’s agreement with Columbia will be incredibly favorable for him because of the circumstances in which he signed his contract. Louis… idk! Also, Columbia has a HUGE percentage of the total share of streams because, well, it’s Columbia. In comparison, BMG gets a minuscule payout.
2. Publishing royalties. Once again, the money is distributed to the rightsholders, but in this case it’s the artist’s PRO + publisher. Harry is with UMPG and Global Music Rights, Louis is with PRS. There’s the publishing rights, and the mechanical rights, and the companies get a cut.
Then the artist often has a deal with their management company where they get a % of their revenue, calculated after everything is said and done. Harry owns a percentage of his management company.
BUT there’s more, what we have to keep in mind is that Spotify net revenue isn’t generated equally. Subscription pays more than ads, and that’s one avenue in which artist’s streams can pay more or less. A lot of Louis’ streams (at least for the first week of FITF) come from fans who create accounts on Spotify to inflate his numbers, those accounts are always free. That significantly lowers his income.
And lastly, Spotify doesn’t make the same amount of money for US streams than streams in Latin America. I’m Latina, that’s why I know I pay a lot less for my subscription than people in America or Europe.
I’m from Peru, here, 1 month premium coats S/ 29.90, which is around U$D 8.17. The same premium account in America costs $9.99.
This is a breakdown of Louis’ main cities and how much they pay for Spotify in dollars:
Average: U$D 7.18. That’s nearly 45% more, just FYI.
This also applies to ads, of course. It’s a lot more expensive to place ads on Spotify in the US or the UK than doing so in Latin America.
So, Harry makes more money because:
He has a better arrangement with his rightholders
Owns a percentage of his management company
His rightholders have a higher percentage of total streams on the platform
Is streamed in countries that make more revenue
Also, he likely has a higher % of rights on his songs. There’s songs where Louis admits he barely tweaked them. Harry has the highest percentage of ownership in all of his songs of all the collaborators (whether it’s shared or alone). PLUS Harry works with a tight knit group of people who are friends with him.
TL;DR Harry made more money in streaming off Satellite than Louis off FITF
Thanks for this - very interesting and educational.
Louis has no top cities in the US or Europe so it's no wonder he's finding it hard to sell tour dates there. He should be prioritising Latam, India and Indonesia.