How does music streaming websites earn money?

4 points by anbux ↗ HN
How do music streaming websites like spotify earn revenue? What is there business model?

3 comments

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They only get only a small cut on prices set by "majors" Some streaming companies try to rollout the netflix model (producing artists / cut the middle man) but it is david v goliath.
Are they living on subscription model?
By my understanding, Spotify has two major sources of revenue: advertisements on unpaid accounts and subscription fees on paid accounts. The subscription fee for a paid account is 10 USD/month (5 USD for students) and I am unable to speculate about the ad revenue per unpaid user.

Spotify has the same expenses as any other tech company, (programmers, servers, office space, lawyers, 100 other things) but also has to pay licensing fees to artists. A major issue in the music industry right now is the low fees that streaming platforms pay artists.