SoundCloud - Indie artist's savior?

 SoundCloud - Indie artist's savior?

Most music streaming services are paying the music copyright holder (artist/record company) with a “pro rata” model, which means the revenue all artists generate in the country. each month will be totaled, then divided by the percentage of streams.

For example, if Apple Music's February sales were $1000, where 10% of the streams were Taylor Swift songs, then that month, Republic Records, which holds the copyright to Taylor's records, would receive $100.

In this model, the people who benefit the most are the stars who are already famous and have a strong fan base. They even get money from people who don't even listen to their music, thanks to overwhelming streams.

When power is divided among the listeners

An alternative model that has been studied for many years is “user-centric payment”. This means that listeners' service fees will only be paid to the artists they listen to in that month. This is basically the new model of SoundCloud, just they use another word - "fan-powered".

Let's say you are using SoundCloud's personal monthly service plan for $ 10 (SoundCloud will keep $3, the remaining $7 will be paid to the music copyright holder). In the month of February, you listen to a song by an artist once, this time will bring your $7 back to that artist.