Two numbers that don't really belong in the same sentence: $5,000. That is the total government funding The Pack Music Co-operative has received across five years and more than twenty grant applications.$420 million. That is the projected annual direct payment to unsigned Australian artists under a proposed government-backed music streaming scheme.

The distance between those two numbers is not a 'start-up' funding gap. It is a government policy choice. It's a decision, made repeatedly and across multiple government institutions, about which parts of the music ecosystem are worth investing in.

The maths of building a musician-owned streaming platform from scratch, in the country with some of the strongest streaming consumption per capita in the world, is genuinely strange.

This blog breaks down why the numbers our government has found via its own research should be the ones making the argument for The Pack.

👉 https://www.packmusic.au/blog/howstreamingsavedlocalmusic

#MusicPolicy #ArtsFunding #IndependentMusic #ThePackMusic #AustralianMusic #MusicIndustry #MusicEconomics #StreamingRoyalties

The music streaming industry presents itself as a modern marvel of digital convenience. And it is that. But beneath the surface lies a system that mirrors the worst aspects of platform capitalism - without even the trickle.

The streaming model concentrates revenue at the top of the distribution curve, extracts value from the workers who generate it, and redistributes that value to shareholders who contribute capital but not creative labour. Cooperatives don't fix this by being 'nicer'. They fix it by changing who owns the infrastructure and who makes the decisions about how it operates. This is the oldest insight of the cooperative tradition. It still holds.

The Pack was built on the premise that the antidote to extractive platform capitalism isn't a better-designed version of the same thing. It's a different model with a different ownership structure and different answers to the question of whose interests the platform was built to serve.

👉https://www.packmusic.au/blog/brokenindustry

#MusicIndustry #CooperativeModel #IndependentMusic #ThePackMusic #EthicalBusiness #MusicianOwned #StreamingRoyalties

Spotify announced it paid $11 billion to the music industry in 2025. Largest annual payout in history. Definitely not a small number. And they want us to feel like this is a win for the music industry.

And it is a win... for some. Here's who won, specifically: the big 4 major record labels, distributors, publishers, and collecting societies. Not, as some might still assume, the artists who made the music.

Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' hit one billion streams. Spotify sent her a commemorative plaque. It sounds like she should have made bank off the song she made famous, right? She said the money was "just about nothing." The $2.7 million that Spotify reportedly paid out went to whoever currently holds the rights - which, forty years and multiple label changes later, is not straightforwardly the artist who sang the song.

The 100,000th highest-earning artist on Spotify made $7,300 in 2025. That's in the top 0.77% of 13 million uploaders. Less than 1%, considered the top earners on the platform, earning what is not a living wage anywhere in Australia. What most of us would barely consider supplementary income.

But what artists are finally starting to realise is that this is no accident. It's not even uncommon. The structure is working exactly as it was designed. And now we know… it was never actually designed for musicians. So the question that remains is, what IS designed for musicians – and how can we show up for it?

New blog from The Pack digs into the royalty chain, the user-centric alternative, and why a high five and a commemorative plaque is doing a lot of heavy lifting.👉 https://www.packmusic.au/blog/follow-the-money

#StreamingRoyalties #IndependentMusic #MusicEconomics #ThePackMusic #PlatformCooperative #FairPay #MusicianRights

Spotify Says Over 13,800 Artists Generated $100,000 on the Platform Last Year: Loud & Clear Report

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.billboard.com/pro/spotify-paid-music-industry-2025-loud-clear-report/

Stop! Musicians — did you know Music NFTs can pay you instantly AND give you royalties every time it resells?”

💰 Instant payouts
🎟 NFTs = concert tickets & VIP passes
📉 Streaming = low per-stream payouts, delayed payments

Musicians, which route would YOU take?
💬 Comment your pick: NFT or Streaming?

📲 Full guide: https://www.hpmusic.id/en/post/music-nfts-vs-traditional-royalties-1

#MusicNFTs #NFTMusic #StreamingRoyalties #IndieArtists #Web3Music #MusicianLife #MusicBusiness

Stop! Musicians — did you know Music NFTs can pay you instantly AND give you royalties every time it resells?”

💰 Instant payouts
🎟 NFTs = concert tickets & VIP passes
📉 Streaming = low per-stream payouts, delayed payments

Musicians, which route would YOU take?
💬 Comment your pick: NFT or Streaming?

📲 Full guide: https://www.hpmusic.id/en/post/music-nfts-vs-traditional-royalties-1

#MusicNFTs #NFTMusic #StreamingRoyalties #IndieArtists #Web3Music #MusicianLife #MusicBusiness

PETITION: By creating a new streaming royalty, the bill would help ensure that artists and musicians can build sustainable careers in the digital age.

#workingmusician #musicroyalties #streamingroyalties

https://weareumaw.org/make-streaming-pay

PETITION: By creating a new streaming royalty, the bill would help ensure that artists and musicians can build sustainable careers in the digital age.

#workingmusician #musicroyalties #streamingroyalties

https://weareumaw.org/make-streaming-pay