The new music royalties

I’ve covered this before, but here is another update on a rapidly-evolving story in cultural economics:

Even for an under-the-radar artist like Ms. Keating, who describes her style as “avant cello,” the numbers painted a stark picture of what it is like to be a working musician these days. After her songs had been played more than 1.5 million times on Pandora over six months, she earned $1,652.74. On Spotify, 131,000 plays last year netted just $547.71, or an average of 0.42 cent a play.

Here is more, and you will recall that the streaming services don’t seem to be making money either.