One of the most contentious parts of a streaming service is how much it pays its artists. Spotify has long been in hot water for the lower per-stream payments it makes, as well as the package deals that seem to give streamers less money than they deserve.
We've always known that payments on other platforms have been better, but Qobuz just proved exactly how much better payouts on the platform are. In an industry-first, Qobuz just had its payouts officially validated by a leading financial firm.
So how much?
Qobuz tells us that "In fiscal year 2024, Qobuz paid an average of US$0.01873 per stream to labels and publishers" and goes on to say that it's "significantly higher than reported industry norms."
"Today, we are taking this step for greater transparency," says George Fornay, Qobuz's Deputy CEO. This is a first in the industry, he continues, finishing definitively "Choosing Qobuz means taking concrete action for fairer compensation for all artists and supporting musical diversity, values that our customers cherish."
I've always been curious to know just how much users care about how much money their chosen streamer pays out to its artists. I certainly do, and part of my streaming choices were made on the potential artist renumeration numbers.
Given that they've always been a murky business, spoken about in hushed tones, I'm not entirely sure many users really knew enough about the issue to really care. That shows in Spotify's ever-increasing subscriber numbers, despite the artist payment controversies.
Perhaps now that the issue has been further highlighted by Qobuz, more users will pick a streamer based on how much their favorite artists are paid.
Qobuz is one of the very best music streaming services around, and well worth it beyond the excellent artist payouts — maybe now is the perfect time to switch.
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