First Floor #78 – SoundCloud's Foray into User-Centric Streaming
a.k.a. An interview with the architect of the company's new "fan-powered royalties" program.
Hello there. I’m Shawn Reynaldo, and welcome to First Floor, a weekly electronic music digest that includes news, my favorite new tracks and some of my thoughts on the issues affecting the larger scene / industry that surrounds the music. This is the free edition of the newsletter; access to all First Floor content (including the complete archive) requires a paid subscription. If you haven’t done so already, please consider signing up for a subscription (paid or unpaid) by clicking the button below. Alternately, you can also make a one-time donation here.
ON MY MIND
When people talk about “fixing” streaming—an idea that I’ve long felt rather dubious about—one of the most frequent suggestions is that the major platforms should switch their payments from a pro-rata model to a user-centric model.
I don’t want to get bogged down in terminology and the minute differences between these models, but on a basic level, a pro-rata system pools all streaming revenue into a giant pot, and then distributes payouts based on each artist’s percentage of total plays across the platform. In this model, if Drake gets 1% of all streams on Spotify, he’s going to get 1% of the distributed revenue. (For consumers, this means that a whole lot of the money you pay these platforms is likely going to artists you never actually listen to.)
In contrast, a user-centric model distributes payments based on individual users’ listening behavior. If a subscriber spends an entire month only streaming Fugazi on Spotify, then 100% of their monthly fee will go toward Fugazi.
To be clear, what I’ve laid out here is an oversimplification, and doesn’t account for other revenue sources (e.g. advertising), the percentage kept by the streaming platforms and all of the other folks taking a cut of these earnings (e.g. publishers, labels, distributors, etc.). Nevertheless, it’s not hard to see the relative appeal of the user-centric model, at least in terms of basic fairness. On an aggregate level, it would help to eliminate the financial incentives to artificially inflate stream totals (via bots and other measures), and when it comes to the artist-fan relationship, user-centric streaming would facilitate a more direct exchange that’s based on measurable real-world listening behavior.
So why haven’t platforms made the switch? Different arguments and excuses have been trotted out over the years, the most frequent being that implementing a user-centric model is simply too arduous in terms of the calculations required. In a pro-rata system, all individual streams are essentially worth the same, but in the user-centric model, that per-stream value would vary (sometimes wildly) from one user to the next. For instance, if a Spotify subscriber only streams 10 songs during an entire month, a user-centric system would make each one of those streams worth $1. Compare that with another user who streams 5000 songs during the same month; each one of their streams would be worth $0.002. Expand that across a userbase of millions, and things do seemingly become rather complicated.
But it’s not just a question of platforms not wanting to do the work, as they’ve also argued that making this switch wouldn’t necessarily be worth it, asserting that user-centric streaming isn’t going to greatly affect the distribution of artist payments in the aggregate. (To bolster their position, they’ve often pointed to several different studies that showed only minor shifts in payment distribution under a user-centric model, with the vast majority of payouts still concentrated amongst a small group of artists at the top.)
Despite these obstacles, some platforms have elected to adopt a user-centric model anyways. Back in 2019, Deezer announced its intention to make the switch, even launching a special website to educate users about the benefits of the user-centric model, but despite promises to launch a pilot and eventually expand the new payment system across their platform, that hasn’t yet come to fruition.
Just last month, SoundCloud also entered the user-centric fray, announcing the launch of what they’ve branded “fan-powered royalties.” They too set up a special web page touting the advantages of the model, and although it was notably short on financial specifics (both on the individual and aggregate level) and also made clear that the system wouldn’t be implemented for everyone (only certain SoundCloud users are eligible), the company did promise that fan-powered royalties would get going as of April 1.
Wanting to find out more, I reached out to SoundCloud for an interview, and was put in contact with Mike Pelczynski, the company’s Head of Rights and Administration and the architect of their fan-powered royalties program. Our call time was limited—which admittedly sometimes prevented me from pushing for specifics or digging as deeply as I would have liked into particular topics—but we covered a lot of ground, from the motivations (past and present) behind the fan-powered royalties project to the parameters (and limitations) of its current implementation. There’s definitely a bit of sales and marketing speak in Pelczynski’s answers, which is to be expected, but aside from that, we also touched upon important questions of revenue and access, and poked some potential holes in the idea that user-centric streaming is simply too difficult for platforms to put into place, or something that won’t significantly benefit small- and medium-tier artists.
The full interview—which has been edited for length and clarity—can be found here.
(PLEASE NOTE: the link to the interview will be open to all for the next 48 hours, but after that, it will be available to paid subscribers only.)
REAL QUICK
A round-up of of the last week’s most interesting electronic music news, plus links to mixes, articles and other things I think are worth sharing.
Unfortunately this news broke after my conversation with SoundCloud (so I wasn’t able to bring it up in the interview), but last Friday it was widely reported that Apple Music sent out a provocative memo to artists, labels and publishers. The headline-grabbing takeaway was Apple’s claim that it paid an average of a penny per stream last year, but the company also touted its consistent royalty rates (i.e. major labels don’t earn a higher percentage) and came out against “alternative royalty models” (i.e. user-centric streaming).
It was only a couple of weeks ago that I interviewed Jeff Mills here in the newsletter—a conversation that included plenty of talk about his new digital magazine, The Escape Velocity—and just yesterday he released the publication’s second issue, which is free to read and available to all.
Writing for the New York Times, Eric Ducker penned an article exploring the surprisingly long shelf life of Aphex Twin’s “Avril 14th.”
Ana Roxanne’s Because of a Flower was one of my favorite albums of 2020, and Cat Zhang interviewed the singer / ambient artist (who apparently moved to NYC a few months ago) for Pitchfork.
Last month, Legowelt announced that he was holding an art contest (and giving away some of his synths as prizes), and now the Dutch producer has unveiled the winners, posting the top entries (along with several honorable mentions) on his website.
Noah Yoo has carved out a niche as one of Pitchfork’s go-to writers when it comes to streaming and other intersections between the music industry and technology, and last week he put together a feature taking a close look at Spotify’s “tragically named” Car Thing device, dissecting not just what it is (“a glorified Bluetooth remote for your phone”), but also what it means in the grander scheme of the company’s strategy. (Spoiler alert: the gadget’s potential privacy implications aren’t exactly reassuring.)
In an effort to assist electronic music artists and creatives looking for financial help, Resident Advisor has compiled an online list of grant and public-funding opportunities. Only a handful of countries are currently on the list—the UK and the Netherlands are both particularly heavily represented—but the offerings will hopefully broaden in the weeks and months ahead, as RA has pledged to keep the page regularly updated.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases that were announced during the past week.
Tresor is a Berlin institution, and this year the long-running club and label is celebrating its 30th anniversary. To mark the occasion, they’ve put together a 52-track, 12-record box set called Tresor 30, which is slated for an October 1 release and will contain music new and old from such artists as Underground Resistance, Jeff Mills, Helena Hauff, DJ Stingray, Joey Beltram, rRoxymore, Robert Hood and many, many more. In the meantime, a video for the compilation’s first single (“Transmutation” from up-and-coming Detroit producer Huey Mnemonic) has been shared.
The pandemic hasn’t slowed down Daniel Avery’s release schedule, and the UK producer will soon be releasing a new album, Together in Static, that consists of music he initially created for a series of upcoming performances at London’s Hackney Church. The LP is set to drop on June 24 via Phantasy Sound and Mute, but before then, one of its tracks, “Endless Hours,” has already been shared.
Physical Therapy has long been something of a shapeshifter, and the New Jersey native has just announced a forthcoming album from his Car Culture alias, a “hypnagogic” project that previously appeared on his 2019 LP It Takes a Village: The Sounds of Physical Therapy. The new record is called Dead Rock and will be released on May 4 via Lighthead Records, a new sub-label of his Allergy Season imprint that he says will be focused on “music for listening.” Multiple tracks from the album are streaming here.
Last year, Kevin Richard Martin (a.k.a. The Bug) was invited to re-score a film of his choosing, and he selected Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 sci-fi classic Solaris. That music, which has been titled Return to Solaris, has now been scheduled for a June 25 release on the Phantom Limb label. Ahead of that, one track, “In Love with a Ghost,” has already been shared.
The Hemlock label, which is headed up by UK producer Untold, last released a record in late 2017, but the imprint will soon be coming back to life with On Tilt, a new EP from London artist Beneath. Before it arrives on May 14, one track, “The Passage,” has been made available.
MY WIFE HAS BETTER TASTE THAN I DO
My wife Dania is a wonderful person, but she has little regard for my taste in electronic music. Head of the Paralaxe Editions label, she often describes the music I like with words like “cheesy,” “simple,” “predictable,” “boring” and, worst of all (in her mind), “happy.” In contrast, I think she has a fantastic ear, and I’m constantly amazed by the obscure gems she unearths, both from record bins and the dark corners of the internet. Given that, I’ve asked Dania to share some of her finds with the First Floor audience. Each week, she highlights something that she’s currently digging, and adds some of her thoughts as to why it’s worth our attention.
Thomas Ankersmit Perceptual Geography (Shelter Press)
Made entirely with the Serge Modular synthesizer, Thomas Ankersmit’s latest release is dedicated to Maryanne Amacher (1938 - 2009), who first introduced him to the instrument. Over the course of the record, Ankersmit explores otoacoustic emissions (or “ear tones”), which are sounds emitted within the ear independent of any external stimuli. Although it’s a bit reductive, they could be compared to the autogenerative frequencies we hear with tinnitus.
Ankersmit takes the idea that as the volume of music goes up, additional tones are generated within the listener’s head that aren’t actually part of the music they’re hearing. (Apparently, cupping the ears with your hands and making slight movements helps to bring out these ear tones even further.) Perceptual Geography comes out later this month, but it will only be released on CD and digital formats, as its otoacoustic tones can’t actually be transferred to vinyl.
Follow Dania on Twitter, or check out her monthly radio show on dublab.es.
NEW THIS WEEK: THE BIG THREE
The following are some of my favorite tracks from three releases that came out during the past week or so. (Click on the track titles to hear each song individually.) An extended list of recommendations is available to paid subscribers only.
Zaumne “Éther” (Mondoj)
Zaumne “Poison” (Mondoj)
Tapping into the same sort of densely textured ambient that makes artists like Perila and Exael so exciting, Polish producer Zaumne has filled his new Élévation EP with hauntingly immersive sounds. With its sultry snippets of whispered, ASMR-style poetry, “Éther” has an obvious hook, but Zaumne has brilliantly fleshed out the composition with an assortment of languid tones, airy melodies and gently jangling field recordings. It all coalesces into something that’s both intensely intimate and emotionally weighty—“Éther” might initially seem like an ethereal listen, but it’ll tug at your psyche. In contrast, the hypnotic “Poison” keeps its menace front and center, its thick waves of bass constantly grumbling beneath a suite of intermittent drum hits and the sound of steady rainfall. It’s the sonic equivalent of getting trapped inside during a storm, but it’s so compelling that you most likely won’t be waiting anxiously for the skies to clear.
Eomac “What Does Your Heart Tell You?” (Planet Mu)
Eomac “Portuguese Man O’ War” (Planet Mu)
One half of the experimental techno / bass duo Lakker, Eomac has also been quite busy as a solo artist in recent years, but his new Cracks LP—which also happens to be his first outing for Planet Mu—represents something of a fresh start. After years of living and recording in Berlin, Eomac returned home to Ireland, and made this album in a rural setting far away from all notions of “the club.” Perhaps that’s why its contents feel so light and free, not to mention utterly unrestrained by standard notions of genre. “What Does Your Heart Tell You?” is a bright, melody-driven dancefloor cut that retains just enough analog crud to keep things interesting, nodding to artists like Lone in the process. The heavier “Portuguese Man O’ War” takes a more ominous (albeit highly invigorating) route, pairing thundering percussion with what sounds like an array of manipulated air-raid sirens. Five minutes in, it’s closer to an industrial buzzsaw than a traditional techno track, but somehow, Eomac makes the song’s groaning disintegration feel like a genuine thrill.
Loxy & Ink “Headz Roll (Ink, Loxy, Resound & Gremlinz Remix)” (Razors Edge)
Ink, Loxy & Resound “Think” (Razors Edge)
It’s no secret that jungle and drum & bass have been on a major upswing during the past few years, but even as producers around the world have done their best to recapture a bit of the music’s old-school ’90s magic, it often seems like the artists and labels from that era—many of which are still active today—don’t always get their fair share of attention. Take Metalheadz (and its various offshoots, including the Razors Edge imprint); everyone knows that Goldie is a legend and that his seminal label was responsible for countless classics, but are folks still checking the new releases? They ought to be, because some of them are legitimate heaters.
Created by drum & bass veterans Ink, Loxy and Resound, “Think” is a fleet-footed tech-step roller with frantic drum hits and a bassline that’s simultaneously both threatening and undeniably funky. It’s definite anthem material, but for those who’d prefer something with a little more nostalgia mixed in, there’s “Headz Roll,” a certified anthem from 2003 that’s been given an update by the all-star quartet of Ink, Loxy, Resound and Gremlinz. Brimming with energy, the rework reinforces the fury of the original with an infectious slate of fast-slapping percussion, but at its core, it’s still a furious piece of smashmouth drum & bass.
Once again, additional track recommendations are available to paid subscribers. This week’s selections include new music from artists like Malibu, Overmono, CFCF, Claire Rousay, Nico and more, along with tracks from labels like Shall Not Fade, Leaving, Gearbox and Shelter Press.
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And with that, we’ve arrived at the end of this week’s newsletter. As always, thank you so much for reading First Floor, and I do hope you enjoyed the tunes.
More next week,
Shawn
Shawn Reynaldo is a freelance writer, editor, presenter and project manager. Find him on LinkedIn or drop him an email to get in touch about projects, collaborations or potential work opportunities.