The Big Read: The true cost of streaming: Spotify paid Kiwi band with five-star reviews and 90,000 streams just $130

Spotify is one of the world's leading music streaming companies. Photo / Getty Images

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TimeOut writer Lydia Jenkin looks at how streaming services are affecting our local music industry.

• Local band She's So Rad earned multiple 5-star reviews for their album Tango and have two songs on A-rotate on Hauraki.
• Yet they've only sold a total of 20 physical CDs and 50 digital albums.
• They have had 90,000 songs streamed on Spotify, earning them a projected $130
• Toy says: "It's just much worse than we expected. I expected it to be bad, but this far surpasses it."

It's not a topic many independent artists are keen to discuss, at least not publicly.

But the reality of how difficult it is to make money as a musician in New Zealand came to our attention once more this week, sparked by a Facebook post.

Jeremy Toy, who is one half of highly regarded alt-pop duo She's So Rad, revealed in a simple, matter of fact way, just how hard it is for a local independent artist to make any money from their music at the moment.

He took the post down after someone began trolling it, but later posted again, further explaining his position, which is this: Despite very strong reviews for their album Tango (including a 5-star review in TimeOut, as well as other major New Zealand print publications, and on Radio NZ), and despite having two songs on A-rotate on Radio Hauraki, plus good support from student radio across the country, they've sold 20 CDs, 20 digital copies through Bandcamp, and 30 digital copies through iTunes since they released the album in May. They had 300 people at their album release gig at the Kings Arms, and sold 1 CD.

But when you look at their streaming data, they've had 90,000 streams on Spotify in the last month, and something in the realm of 80,000 individual song streams on Soundcloud.

Auckland duo She's So Rad. They've got the reviews but not the money. Photo / Supplied

The projected revenue for their online streaming was $130, though their distributor has since said it's likely to be higher, probably equal to 25 album sales.

Soundcloud doesn't pay out any royalty payments, Spotify pays a tiny amount per stream based on your popularity on the service and their revenue, and YouTube has different methods of calculation depending on your deal and whether you're helping them to earn advertising revenue.

So essentially, an act who's getting reasonable radio play, strong reviews, and tallying up 90,000 streams in a month on Spotify is somehow still making next to nothing ...

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