Apple Podcasts Subscriptions vs. Spotify Paid Subscriptions vs. Patreon – creator fees compared

Tom Newmanin
Digital Music News

How do the creator fees for Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, Spotify Paid Subscriptions and Patreon stack up for podcasters?

Last month, both Apple and Spotify revealed plans for their upcoming podcast subscription models. Both Apple’s Podcasts Subscriptions and Spotify’s Paid Subscriptions work in a similar way to Patreon, allowing creators to sign up and offer exclusive content in exchange for monthly payments. How do these three services’ fees stack up against each other?

These numbers are minus any taxes or tranaction fees, as these vary by region. As Apple and Spotify’s platforms are yet to be publicly available, numbers may change prior to release. We’ll have to wait until these platforms launch until we can truely compare the features of each.

Following are the platform fees/cuts.

Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
  • $19.99 (US) per year, plus
  • 30% for the first year
  • 15% for following years

Example of earning $1000 per year:

Image Credit: RouteNote
Spotify Paid Subscriptions
  • 0% until 2023
  • 5% from 2023

Example of earning $1000 per year:

Image Credit: RouteNote
Patreon
  • 5% for Lite plan
  • 8% for Pro plan
  • 12% for Premium plan

Example of earning $1000 per year:

Image Credit: RouteNote

The best music distribution companies 2021

Tom Newmanin
Support / FAQs

RouteNote provides the most comprehensive set of features, dedicated to helping independent artists and labels publish music online.

At first glance, the digital music distribution landscape may seem complicated, but there is one distribution service that strikes the perfect balance between features, support and cost. RouteNote helps hundreds of thousands of artists and labels around the world effortlessly navigate the modern music landscape, with powerful but easy-to-use tools, all available to everyone for free.

Once you’ve uploaded your music to RouteNote, simply select which stores and streaming services you want your music to appear in. We distribute to all of the top services around the world including Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, TIDAL and many more. We can also help you monetize your content across social networks including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud and TikTok.

For each release, choose between Free Distribution or Premium Distribution. Free Distribution is free of fees or recurring costs, while artists keep 85% of the revenue generated. Artists building an audience online love our Free model. Premium Distribution costs a small fee and annual costs, while artists keep 100% of the revenue generated. Established artists love our Premium model.

Now your new release is finished, it will be sent to our moderation team. Usually within 24-72 hours, we’ll take a listen to your release, fix any simple metadata errors and all being well, approve your release. Once approved, your music will be sent to all of the partner stores and streaming services you picked.

If at any point you run into an issues with RouteNote, our dedicated support team are ready to help every step of the way. Visit our support hub for help with common issues, or get in contact at support@routenote.com.

Artists always keep 100% of the rights to their music. You have full control of where your music goes and can switch between Free Distribution, Premium Distribution or take your music down entirely at any time should you change your mind.

You’re just a few clicks away from sharing your music with new fans around the world, thanks to RouteNote.

SoundCloud and Triller join forces to break new artists’ music

Jacca-RouteNotein
Artist / Label News

A new alliance will push up-and-coming artists in front of people through the fun and viral videos of Triller, powered by SoundCloud.

Triller will now feature playlists curated straight from SoundCloud‘s team of tastemakers, offering up a fresh selection for creators to choose from. The playlists will appear for users on the Music Discovery page and will be regularly updated each month with fresh tracks taken from SoundCloud’s various artist-driven teams.

Artists can now also link their Triller profiles to their SoundCloud profile to get fans to head to their pages directly. The connection is an important one for Triller, who recently lost their music license with UMG. This severely depleted the amount of music they were able to offer to creators and fans.

Triller CEO, Mahi de Silva said: “With a shared goal of showcasing established and emerging talent, this partnership puts artists first – just like Triller does. In front of a global audience, emerging artists will now have the opportunity to develop a Triller fan base that is empowered to create, share, and connect.”

With over 300 million downloads, Triller is huge but the TikTok competitor has nowhere near the scope of it’s main rival. TikTok also have established music licenses allowing for a pretty comprehensive music choice for creators to choose from. A close relationship with SoundCloud and its independent creators could be the niche Triller needs to stand apart.

Loans of up to $2 million on offer to artists, songwriters, and music rightsholders

Jacca-RouteNotein
Artist / Label News

A new London-based fund is offering the music world huge potential loans so that they don’t have to sign away their rights for tough times.

Music Credit Fund probably don’t have capes, but they are swooping in to rescue struggling musicians and their rightsholders. With deep pocketed funds, the finance company are offering loans to artists and the licensed rightsholders of music to keep them going through these difficult times, as an alternative to selling away their rights.

They are offering up to $2 million to borrow for 5-10 years loans at “competitive interest rates” with no personal guarantees. They have Gravis Capital Management Limited on board as their investment fund manager who will aid them in offering loans to songwriters and artists themselves, as well as “for any business-related purposes such as acquisitions or business development”.

The Music Credit Funs (MCF) has been launched by Jack MacDonald, Managing Director of Alvarium Investments’ Merchant Banking. He says: “Existing acquisition models and restrictive debt offerings shouldn’t be the only way to access funding in the music industry. The last few years has seen a growth in understanding and confidence in the space and in our view this should lead to more evolved, fairer options for creatives.

“Music Credit Fund will offer the industry the opportunity to secure finance against their intellectual property and revenue streams whilst maintaining full ownership of the businesses and copyrights that they have created.”

The MCF has launched with two advisory board members to oversee decisions and advise funding. They are former Association of Independent Music CEO and Chair Alison Wehnam, and ie:music’s Co-Founder and Chairman Tim Clark.

Alison Wehnam said: “MCF will be a competitive and global finance solution for the whole industry. We are providing a transparent, equitable and elegant solution to companies, content owners and artists who require finance but above all, wish to retain their rights.”

Tim Clark added: “I’ve always been a firm believer in artists and creators owning their own rights and Music Credit Fund provides an excellent option for those who are seeking to release capital from their rights but don’t want to sell outright. For that reason, the fund has my staunch support.”

Celebrities join huge EngineEars platform funding round

Madeleine Amosin
Artist / Label News

Image Credit: EngineEars

Music celebrities including Kendrick Lamar have invested in MixedByAli’s EngineEars platform, in a total funding round of $1m.

EngineEars, a music tech startup, has raised a tuneful $1 million in its first funding round. The investors include an impressive lineup of celebrities, with Kendrick Lamar, Roddy Ricch, DJ Khaled and more getting involved.

Founded by MixedByAli, EngineEars features a marketplace where independent audio engineers can offer their producing services and get paid for it. Artists and labels can search and book engineers for whatever music project they’re working on. It was launched to give a boost to behind-the-scenes workers in the music industry like producers, engineers and songwriters who don’t always receive the recognition they deserve.

Producers, artists and labels alike have invested in MixedByAli’s platform. Multi-Grammy Award winning engineer Derek Ali, who’s worked with Drake, Cardi B, and Megan Thee Stallion, launched EngineEars as an alpha version in January this year.

Image Credit: MixedByAli (via Instagram)

Speaking to Billboard about the platform, Ali said: “The independent music sector is growing at such a rapid rate. More platforms are being made available for artists, for producers. Engineers, we’re getting the most love now than ever. Why isn’t there anything cultivated for these people?

“This is a platform built for engineers, by engineers. The problems that we’re fixing with EngineEars are issues that I deal with on a day-to-day basis. For the first time, you get paid instantly. You get credited. As engineers, we live off credit, we grow our name and we grow our business off credits. We’re also giving artists access to some of the top-tier audio engineers.”

The full list of investors also included Bas, Cardogotwings, Ella Mai, G, Ibrahim Hamad of Dreamville, Kenny Beats, La Mar Taylor of XO, Masego, Meko Yohannes of 10SummersMustard, Russ, Smino, Young Guru, and the EQT indie label. 

An invite-only service, EngineEars has 120 engineers verified with 2,000 more on a waiting list. Since 2018 the service has provided educational courses and workshops in four countries. In the future the platform is looking to add new features, sell beats, and offer contract negotiations.

Musicians Ask Spotify Abandon Speech Recognition Patent

Kieran Webberin
Artist / Label News
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Digital Music News
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Music News
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Technology

Image credit: Toru Yamanaka/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Those that have penned the open letter include Tom Orello, Talib Kweli, and DIIV.

The patent that was filed back in 2018 is a voice recognition system that could detect the emotional state, age, and gender of a person. It would then take that information and target the listener with personalised recommendations and personalized advertisements. Naturally, such a technology has made some people feel uncomfortable, however, this technology is already being used by companies such as Vevo. There is also an AI owned by Mirriad that “scans content for its emotional register moment by moment” allowing for them to place products “exactly the right place at the right time”. 

The non-profit company Access Now has sent Spotify a letter calling it to abandon its tech. This has now been backed up by several other groups as well as more than 180 musicians, including Rage Against the Machines Tom Morello and rapper Talib Kweli. They have been asking that Spotify publicly abandon the patent and commit to never using it. 

The letter directly addressed to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek outlines the five primary concerns with the technology. Stating that Spotify, or any other company that could use it, would manipulate users emotionally, harvest their personal information, and discriminate against Trans and Non-Binary people. The letter also claims that the technology will only further worsen financial inequalities within the music industry. The letter gives Mr. Ek till May 18th, 2021 to publicly respond.   

TWOPILOTS’ reimagining of a Jennifer Lopez classic can’t be missed

Jacca-RouteNotein
Artist / Label News

Image credit: Soave

If You Had My Love has had a fresh new life breathed into it with this amazing reworking of the Lopez classic and it’s a hit in China.

We’ve been feeling the love over on NetEase lately, one of China’s top 3 streaming services alongside QQ Music and Alibaba. The artists and labels who distribute with us have the option to send their music all over the world and after Strange Fruits recently had a huge NetEase feature after releasing their music through us, Soave are now getting attention too.

TWOPILOTS released their cover of If You Had My Love by Jennifer Lopez featuring De Hofnar around the world with Soave through RouteNote. It’s now made it to their ‘Web New Release Recommendation’ section, bringing new and recommended music to music lovers in China.

These sections on music sites are an incredible place for both artists and listeners. Listeners can find new music that they love based on what they’re already into and it’s an amazing opportunities for artists to get discovered and find brand new fans who they know will be into what they’ve got to give.

We know we’ve been bumping this track hard and we’re thrilled to know it’s being appreciated all around the globe.

Whether you’re an artist or an independent label who is looking to release your music online to all of the major streaming services and download stores, we have the solution for you. With Free distribution on unlimited releases we offer no barrier to entry and you keep 85% of all the money your music makes. If you’re expecting a big release then we offer some of the most competitive rates on the market for Premium distribution which sees you keep 100% of your earnings.

Head to www.routenote.com and get your music heard everywhere today.

Keys Magazine releases Sawrizor Lite free synth plugin

Madeleine Amosin
Software

Image Credit: Sugar Audio

Get an exclusive free virtual synthesizer plugin from Sugar Audio and Keys Magazine.

Sawrizor Lite virtual synth is an impressive, simplified version of the Sawrizor plugin by Sugar Audio – which Keys Magazine are kindly offering as a free plugin.

The free synth plugin offers an 11-fold saw oscillator. Effects-wise, the Sawrizor Lite offers reverb, delay, chorus and EQ, lending creative depth to the sound. An oscillator and sub-oscillator gives it that punch, with different wavetables to pick from.

Use the synth lead and bass sounds in your electronic music production to instantly dominate the track. Keys Magazine have also included a preset bank by sound designer Carlzon, offering classic EDM sounds.

Meanwhile the more advanced paid pro version of Sawrizor, which has a bigger set of features, is available to buy for €30.

Sawrizor Lite is easy to install and use, and nicely low on CPU use. There’s no sign up required to download the free synth plugin.

Features:

  • Voice unison with detune, mix and other features
  • Three sinewaves, drive, triangle, saw and square waveforms
  • Available in VST, AAX and AU formats
  • Not compatible with macOS Big Sur or later

Get Sawrizor Lite free synth plugin for free from Sugar Audio and Keys Magazine here.

Henri Purnell gets a taste of the charts as a new German fan favourite

Jacca-RouteNotein
Artist / Label News

Image credit: Henri Purnell

Henri Purnell’s latest release with Soave and powered by RouteNote is jumping up the charts. Not too shabby for an artist whose favourite instrument is whistling!

Whilst he may have a penchant for whistling, the young German producer taking the country by storm is finding fame for much more. Following in the footsteps of his inspirations like Martin Garrix and Lost Frequencies, Henri Purnell is producing the soundtrack of new sunny days with a sound like fresh fruit juice.

Combining joyous tunes with a range of amazing vocalists, Purnell has been powering some of the hottest collaborations in recent years. It’s plain to see, people are loving the music. Recently reaching the German Airplay Top 200 at #167 on Apple Music and iTunes with plays across the airwaves on his new single ‘On My Way Home’ featuring Joe Cleere.

Teaming up for the track, it tells the story of someone taking a metaphorical trip back home. With a tone that may feel more subdued and melancholy than past releases, the sound is still filled with an empowering energy that will have you hankering for the clubs.

So what are you waiting for? Grab your drink of choice, find the nearest sunny spot, and join the fun!

Twitter partner with Billboard to launch ‘Hot Trending’ chart

Tom Newmanin
Digital Music News

The upcoming ‘Billboard Hot Trending’ chart will highlight the most talked-about songs over the past 24 hours on the social network.

Announced earlier this week at NewFronts, Billboard Hot Trending is being touted as a first-of-its-kind, tracking music buzz online. Instead of a weekly chart that lists the most played/downloaded songs in a week, the new Hot Trending chart will show the most talked about new and classic songs across music-related trends and conversation on Twitter, updated every 24 hours. This could range from buzz around a new release, award show and festival moments, music nostalgia trends, TV and film features, and more.

Tracking what people are talking about and not necessarily what they’re listening to is certainly an interesting idea. According to Twitter’s head of entertainment partnerships Sarah Rosen, music is the most talked-about topic on Twitter worldwide. The Billboard Hot Trending chart will be supported with video content, consistent editorial coverage and organic support from A-list music stars.

At the NewFronts event, Twitter also announced a number of other partnerships that will lead to new features on the platform over the next year, as the social platform makes a push into video content.

One such partnership is with song lyrics and musical knowledge site Genius. Twitter will bring Genius’ show Verified, where artists break down the meaning of their songs, to fans around the world. They will implement Twitter polls, fan Q&As and more into the show. The announcement also highlighted a number of sports and gaming partnerships with the likes of Tencent owned video game developer and esports organizer Riot Games.

Twitter is home to the most vibrant, diverse communities and the place where fandom thrives. The premium content we’re collaborating on with our partners is igniting passion and enabling marketers to tap into the excitement of those communities and be a part of what’s happening.

Jennifer Prince, Global VP and Head of Content Partnerships, Twitter

See YouTube’s latest stats revealed at this year’s NewFronts.