{"id":9545,"date":"2025-11-06T01:39:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=9545"},"modified":"2025-11-06T01:39:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:39:50","slug":"they-use-our-music-as-bait-billie-eilish-exposes-the-streaming-giants-free-model-that-leaves-99-of-artists-paid-less-than-0-004-per-stream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/?p=9545","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThey use our music as bait\u201d \u2014 Billie Eilish exposes the streaming giants’ ‘free’ model that leaves 99% of artists paid less than $0.004 per stream."},"content":{"rendered":"

Pop star <\/span>Billie Eilish<\/span><\/b> has strongly criticized the business model of ad-supported free tiers, accusing them of turning music into “bait” <\/span>to<\/span><\/b> maximize advertising profits while exploiting artists’ labor.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Eilish’s criticism highlights the imbalance in the current streaming ecosystem, particularly the huge pay gap between paid and free accounts.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The “Bait” Business Model<\/span><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

According to Eilish, the free tiers (which rely heavily on advertising) are used as a \u201cbait\u201d to attract and retain billions of users. This helps the platforms solidify their position as attractive advertising channels, driving up their own value while the value of the music\u2014that is, the artists\u2019 intellectual property\u2014is reduced to almost zero.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Profit Prioritizes Advertising:<\/span><\/b> This model prioritizes ad revenue and massive user numbers over properly compensating creators.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \ud83d\udcc9 The Alarming Salary Gap<\/span><\/h3>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The unfairness is evident in the average payout per stream, especially between paid and free users:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Stream Type<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nEstimated Payment Level (Average\/turn)<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
    Premium\/Subscriber Stream<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/td>\nUsually from $0.005 to over $0.01<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Ad-Supported Free<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/td>\nSignificantly low, often under $0.004<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    YouTube Music (Ad-Free)<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/td>\nEstimated at $0.002 or less<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    This means that a budding artist would need <\/span>millions<\/span><\/b> of streams from a free account to make a modest income. Even for big stars like Eilish, the actual royalties after label, management and taxes are only a small fraction.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The Debate Over Payment Models<\/span><\/h3>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Eilish’s criticism adds to a larger debate in the music industry about the current royalty model, known as <\/span>the Pro-Rata<\/span><\/b> (or Market Share Model).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Pro-Rata Model:<\/span><\/b> All subscription and advertising revenue is pooled into a common fund, which is then distributed based on a percentage of an artist\u2019s total streams across the platform. This model has been criticized for <\/span>favoring superstars<\/span><\/b> and artists with huge streams at the expense of mid-level and emerging creators.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
    • Proposed Solution:<\/span><\/b> Many parties are calling for a move to <\/span>a User-Centric Payment System (UCPS)<\/span><\/b> , where a listener’s subscription money would only be divided among the artists they <\/span>personally<\/span><\/i> listened to. This would supposedly allow fans to directly support their favorite artists in a more equitable manner.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      In short, Billie Eilish’s message is a warning: by turning music into a free and abundant commodity, streaming platforms are at risk of <\/span>devaluing<\/span><\/b> the artistic labor that underpins their billion-dollar empires.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Pop star Billie Eilish has strongly criticized the business model of ad-supported free tiers, accusing them of turning music into “bait” to maximize advertising profits while exploiting artists’ labor. Eilish’s criticism highlights the imbalance in the current streaming ecosystem, particularly the huge pay gap between paid and free accounts.   The “Bait” Business Model  …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}