Where does the money from the download payments go?

[hekemon]

I would be interested to use spotify to support my favourite artists by downloading their songs.

What is the artist's share of the 0,60€ - 1,59€ payment per track? Obviously Spotify is entiteld to their share but the division should read right here on this page: https://www.spotify.com/fi/about/downloads/

Because there are easier ways to download tracks (Spotify's selection of songs is kind of limited, only few or no tracks from some albums etc.) I'd only use this Spotify service to conpensate the artist but this only makes sense if I know where my money goes.

[jvanderb]

A Spotify employee could most likely shed some more light on this subject, but I do have some information that might help.  Spotify does not compensate the artists directly.  This is the same for other download services as well.  A portion of the money goes to licensing companies (ASCAP, BMI, et. al.) to pay for the license to download and/or stream music for the artists that whichever licensing companies represent.  The amount that Spotify pays to these companies is not decided by Spotify.  The compensation structure for each if these licensing companies is different as well.  So there is really no simple way to tell just how much of the money you are paying per song goes to the artist, unfortunately.

[ajcarabajal]

We should not assume that the artists are being given fair compensation from the licensing companies.  We are not hearing Spotify's or the licensing companies music.  We are paying to here the artists and songwriters efforts.  As for what amount actually goes to the artist, there should be full disclosure to the public so that they can wisely choose a service that fulfills all of their consumer criteria.

[Daniroc68]

I would also like to know this. LastFM clearly posts royalty payment terms for songs played on their radio stations but I am unable to find anything on Spotify about this. I also cannot see how someone may link to a purchase site from here? How are these musicians getting paid by Spotify?