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Business News Digital
Indie musician Ron Pope cheers for Spotify
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 24 February 2014
There’s money to be made from Spotify, or so says indie musician Ron Pope. And, unlike a lot of artists who’ve weighed in on this debate, he has numbers to back up his argument.
In an article for The Huffington Post last week, Pope wrote: “My music was added to Spotify in September of 2010; through the most recent report, which runs through November 2013, I’ve had over 57 million plays and they’ve paid me out $334,636, with over $200,000 of that coming in 2013. I’m getting over a million streams in Sweden alone most months”.
Of course, not every artist is getting those sorts of play counts. But, says Pope, having a broad catalogue of work available on Spotify has been key to growing these numbers. Also, as we’ve so often said before, he highlights the importance of artists tapping into a number of different revenue streams, not just recordings, and making sure they all work together.
In particular, he talks up the gigs he’s been able to secure as a result of the newfound popularity of his music that Spotify has helped to build. “When I played in Norway in early 2012, I sold around 100 tickets; since then, my music has exploded on Spotify there”, he said. “My upcoming show sold out at 450 tickets more than three months in advance”.
On how his recording-based revenues have changed in recent years, he added: “Until a few years ago, I was deriving 95% of my income from selling digital singles; if there’s anyone who should be afraid of streaming, it’s me. Instead, I’m watching my fanbase grow exponentially as my fans utilise social networking and streaming sites like Spotify to create an honest to goodness grassroots movement. These fans are consuming my entire catalogue rather than one specific single”.
Read Pope’s article in full here.
