Blog: songwriters

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Songwriters, we want to hear from you! Raise your voice in MIDiA’s new survey

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Tatiana Cirisano
Last year, MIDiA’s inaugural songwriter survey uncovered an alarming statistic: 67% of songwriters name “lack of meaningful streaming income” as their biggest challenge. More alarming yet is the fact that this remained the most common challenge for songwriters in our survey across income levels and tenure, even as other challenges – such as breaking through the noise – diminished.
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The rise of the songwriter ‘brand’

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Tatiana Cirisano
If you have been drawn into the particular orbit of pop music that includes Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter, you probably know a thing or two about Dan Nigro. Fans have been joining the dots between Nigro and this cluster of emergent pop artists on social media — not only discovering his credits on hits like Chappell’s “Good Luck, Babe!” and Rodrigo’s “Vampire”, but also clocking that he is in the studio with Reneé Rapp and followed Carpenter on Instagram .
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Streaming’s remuneration model cannot be ‘fixed’

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Mark Mulligan
The #brokenrecord debate continues to build momentum and new models such as user-centric are getting increased attention, including at governmental level in the UK. But as Mat Dryhurst correctly observes , there is a risk of the market falling into streaming fatalism; that the obsession with trying to fix a model that might not be fixable distracts us from focusing on trying to build alternative futures.
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Songwriters Aren’t Getting Paid Enough and Here’s Why

Mark Mulligan
Music Business Worldwide recently ran a story on how Apple has proposed a standard streaming rate for songwriters, with Google and Spotify apparently resistant. Of course, Apple can afford to run Apple Music at a loss and has a strategic imperative for making it more difficult for Spotify to be profitable, so do not assume that Apple’s intentions here are wholly altruistic.
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Here’s How Spotify Can Fix Its Songwriter Woes (Hint: It’s All About Pricing)

Cover image for Here’s How Spotify Can Fix Its Songwriter Woes (Hint: It’s All About Pricing)
Mark Mulligan
Songwriter royalties have always been a pain point for streaming, especially in the US where statutory rates determine much of how songwriters get paid.  The current debate over Spotify, Amazon, Pandora and Google challenging the Copyright Royalty Board’s proposed 44% increase illustrates just how deeply feelings run.
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