You all know this story. You go to a gig and watch a local muso you love play to a room of about two hundred people. Everyone in the room has their phone out. The music is amazing. She makes enough from the gig to pay the band… but not to get ahead.

And she made $11 from streaming that month. Make you wonder how she'll fund recording her next album, hey… or whether she'll even bother.

We built The Pack Music Co-operative because we thought there was a better arrangement available — one where 70% of every subscription goes directly to the artists you actually listen to, where discovery surfaces music being made locally, and where the platform is owned by the musicians on it.

We thinking streaming should be a realistic supplementary income, not an extraction racket.

We're crowdfunding now, from $25. https://crowdfunding.startsomegood.com/thepackmusiccoop #ThePackMusic #FairPay #AustralianMusic #SupportLocalMusic

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

You all know this story. You go to a gig and watch a local muso you love play to a room of about two hundred people. Everyone in the room has their phone out. The music is amazing. She makes enough from the gig to pay the band… but not to get ahead.

And she made $11 from streaming that month. Make you wonder how she'll fund recording her next album, hey… or whether she'll even bother.

We built The Pack Music Co-operative because we thought there was a better arrangement available — one where 70% of every subscription goes directly to the artists you actually listen to, where discovery surfaces music being made locally, and where the platform is owned by the musicians on it.

We thinking streaming should be a realistic supplementary income, not an extraction racket.

We're crowdfunding now, from $25. https://crowdfunding.startsomegood.com/thepackmusiccoop #ThePackMusic #FairPay #AustralianMusic #SupportLocalMusic

Hugh Marks

• a fuckhead before abc
• a fuckhead at abc

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/mar/25/abc-staff-strike

#abc #fairworkstandards #fairpay #union #strike #FuckGenAI

Nearly 400 companies - including several household names - have been handed penalties for failing to pay the minimum wage!

#CostOfLivingCrisis #FairPay #WorkersMatter

You all know this story. You go to a gig and watch a local muso you love play to a room of about two hundred people. Everyone in the room has their phone out. The music is amazing. She makes enough from the gig to pay the band… but not to get ahead.

And she made $11 from streaming that month. Make you wonder how she'll fund recording her next album, hey… or whether she'll even bother.

We built The Pack Music Co-operative because we thought there was a better arrangement available — one where 70% of every subscription goes directly to the artists you actually listen to, where discovery surfaces music being made locally, and where the platform is owned by the musicians on it.

We thinking streaming should be a realistic supplementary income, not an extraction racket.

We're crowdfunding now, from $25. https://crowdfunding.startsomegood.com/thepackmusiccoop #ThePackMusic #FairPay #AustralianMusic #SupportLocalMusic