Artists Only Took 12 Percent of The Music Industry's Revenue Last Year

The music industry made $43 billion in 2017, according to a new report from Citigroup. It's the industry's biggest haul since 2006 when people were still buying lots of CDs.

Recording artists only got 12 percent of that revenue, or $5.1 billion. Most of that came from touring.

That sounds bad, but the artist percentage has been coming up over the years: it was 7 percent in 2000.

Still, that's an awful lot of money going to non-creatives, and it makes the music industry unique. 

"Currently artists are at the end of the line," analyst  Bjorn Niclas said in the report. "They get the smallest piece of the pie even though they are the ones creating the content. In any other industry you typically see much better returns and margins."

Meek Mill and Lupe Fiasco picked up on that theme, with Lupe signaling out Spotify.

Nobody really winning 🤨 lol the owners killing shit tho 🧐

A post shared by Meek Mill (@meekmill) on Aug 8, 2018 at 10:10am PDT

Spotify is not your friend. They are just a necessary evil. Fight a little harder when your manager or lawyer tries to peer pressure you into accepting shit that feels wrong in your soul. 9 Times out of 10 your right AND they don’t have to sign their soul away to that shit, YOU DO! You are worth more than what they say you are. Also if they have a reputation for being dirty in the past THEY WILL BE DIRTY IN THE FUTURE! These dirty motherfuckers won’t change the behavior that got them where they are. They fuck with you now because you are on trend and fashionable once that #WAVE dies and the new hot young blood comes through the door your ass will be forgotten about and marginalized ESPECIALLY if you had little to nothing to do with the music you make! Work smarter & harder! 👍🏾 just a little advice...but you can do whatever the fuck you wanna do tho 🤷🏾‍♂️... IF YOU “UNITE YOUR EYES” THINGS WILL LOOK MUCH DIFFERENT!!! #LoveMusicButHateTheMusicBusiness

A post shared by Lupe Fiasco (@lupefiasco) on Aug 8, 2018 at 6:52am PDT