> Even a hardcore pirate like me tried to do the right thing when it comes to music - I got Spotify.
This is not the right thing to do. Spotify is peanuts to artists. If you want to do the right thing, buy music at Bandcamp: you get files you can keep forever and artists get a fair share of your money.
True... but I would argue the average Joe was never inclined to "do the right thing" anyway, he would just do what's more convenient for him (back in the days it was listnening to the radio, these days it's spoteezer). That's what made me react in the first place... conflating a spoteezer subscription with "do the right thing" is just... bizarre to me. You can only do so when you ignore the truth of the revenue share behind these platforms
> This is not the right thing to do. Spotify is peanuts to artists. If you want to do the right thing, buy music at Bandcamp
The right thing to do is to directly subscribe to their Patreon. It not only gets you access to exclusives, behind the scenes and even events, it also crowdfunds the future projects of the artist.
The right thing to do is to identify where the artist lives, then withdraw unmarked and untraceable cash which you post through their mailbox as a 'gift'. This means that you can guarantee all the money goes directly to the artist.
If you mean that as opposed to part of it being converted to taxes, I'd argue that's not quite "the right thing". Or does the artist not benefit from public goods and services, like roads, public lighting, police, firefighting, etc etc etc?
Ha, I was joking - I was just playing the game of 'claim the original suggestion isn't what a true supporter would do, and heighten the previous suggestion' by suggesting a semi-illegal 'stalk and dump unmarked cash' technique.
i.e. If you were a true supporter, the right thing to do would be to form a legal trust and make the beneficiary of the trust the artist's children, and put your money into that, as this would help them legally avoid income taxes on the money you are giving them while using the money for their children's education.
Or a TRUE SUPPORTER wouldn't use band camp, instead they would evaluate the quality of roads and infrastructure around the artists house and pay for a series of contractors to improve the surrounding roads and areas, which will not only improve the artists quality of living but will also improve the value of their house. etc. etc.
In reality there is no 'right thing to do' - just choose whatever channel the artist has put up that supports them at the level that you want them to, and where you get value out.
I disagree. A gift is not taxable. If I send a check to you in the mail because I like your HN nickname, you don't pay taxes on that. You might need to pay taxes on a Patreon account if you have set it up for the purpose of supporting a business venture, but if you have set it up for donations to an ailing relative for example, IMO you do not owe taxes.
Depends on where you are based. It may not be a gift if you receive something in return. And in Finland, where I live, gifts over a certain value are taxable income
I think subscriptions are part of the problem. I personally compensate artists with a one time payment on Bandcamp, download permanent files to my NAS, and replicate them in devices I use for music.
Yes you're taking peanuts from the artists and sacks of peanuts from the music corporations, that provide.. er, promotion, a contract, and own the rights to the music the artist created.
Although it is true artists do get something, the lion's share goes to the music corporation.
That's the part about passion industries people don't understand: the distribution side doesn't have much power to structure the payment to artists, it's all in control of the publishers (labels/movie studios/game publishers) who control a large catalogue of works and have immense leverage to negotiate all this bullshit on geo-locked content, royalties' payments to the creators, etc.
Ranting about Spotify's, Apple Music's, Tidal's payments to the artists or region-locking IP is a smoke-and-mirrors move from major labels, they are the ones forcing these practices unto the distributors/streaming services.
It's probably not as good, but works fine for me. Also, I heard they have a human-managed discovery instead of the automatic one. Podcasts with the overviews are also amazing.
This is not the right thing to do. Spotify is peanuts to artists. If you want to do the right thing, buy music at Bandcamp: you get files you can keep forever and artists get a fair share of your money.