Daniel Ek (Spotify) on revenues: '200 streams equals one download'

The founder of Spotify, talking to QZ, explained how streaming music revenues work for right holders: according to his experience, at present, it takes 200 streams of a song to earn the equivalent of a paid for download.

"I can tell you it will take you 200 song listens before you make the same amount of money [as a download],” Daniel Ek told QZ. “But because the consumption behavior is entirely different, and the revenue then increases perpetually, it’s not even a question of if this model is better, it’s just when in the lifecycle it’s better". And the reason is simple: people are building playlists; this is the biggest difference from the traditional business model of music industry, relying on records' sales spiking immediately after the release of an album and then dramatically dropping. Streaming music business model is the equivalent of paying an artist every time a fan puts one of his songs on the stereo.