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Money, money, money … in the music business, there seems to be little left for the songwriters that fuel it. ABBA co-founder Björn Ulvaeus calls for the industry to support its most valuable asset, breaking down how the streaming revolution impacts creator royalties, careers and craft — and outlines what can be done to truly thank artists for the music.

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By: wildsPosted on Categories : Categories : UncategorizedTags:

29 Replies to “Björn Ulvaeus: How music streaming transformed songwriting | TED”

  2. Maybe we go back to patronage. The reason we have renaissance art or baroque music is some wealthy patron like a king paid for the whole show.

    I do with bjorn success with his initiative.

  6. I am so proud of you, Björn! Thank you for being brave and thoughtful of our artists today. I agree with all your sentiments and suggestions, and hopefully these will all be considered given the grave situation of the music industry. You truly are a humble visionary, Björn. God bless your kind heart. ?

  8. You know, I don't see any problem here. Singers, actors, performers and other people of art have always got higher salaries than e.g. teachers, doctors, policemen etc. One or two popular songs – at once struck gold. Once the pandemic happened, they all started to whine. Please, come back to the Earth. Anyone who wants to make a living, should work hard. So, get up and start working! Just tired of these childish speeches "I am a poor artist please support me". No one cares. It's your life. Stop complaining and do something. The planet is going to stop just because you're hard-pressed.

  14. ANGRY RANT INCOMING: Obscure artists who produce amazing, music have always trailed behind generic top 40s and genre billboard leaders. Where is their fair compensation? Where has it ever been? Compensation for musical artists has been fundamentally flawed from the get go, and it comes down to the structure of our economic structure as a whole. REAL artists do what they do because they love to do it, not because they are shooting for a big pay-day. But they deserve to do it in economic security, so first we must ensure that all artists of all kinds can feel free to pursue their craft regardless of its reception which is synthetically skewed by marketing and advertisement anyway. Everyone knows Taylor Swift, but who knows AU5? hes just as good of an artist, but wildly different. and because he isn't to society's generic tastes he gets buried, which ensures society will never discover him to a high enough degree to acquire his taste, and our culture stagnates as a result. superstar theory only makes this worse. the quality of musical composition has deteriorated DRASTICALLY since the days of the great composers of the enlightenment age. We are slowly getting back there, but in the meantime our tastes have degraded to the point where music is all about a quick dopamine rush or a catchy chorus, vapid, devoid of meaning. I'm sorry this old guy is finally realizing the inherent unfairness of the music industry now, but hes a fool to think that it was once fair "back in the day", at least back then it was fair to assume people didn't have the resources to produce their own music as easily as they do now, but with the democratization of music production you'd expect that the pool of top hits would've expanded, but no! there are billions more music consumers now then there were 50 years ago and 10s of thousands more artists, so why are the top 40 songs each month all coming from the same pool of 5 or 6 artists (most of whom have had the same tracks in the top 40s for months on end) when thousands of talented artists are completely undiscovered? is it their fault? no! its OUR fault. when we search for new music we just gulp down what the radio or Spotify home page spoon feeds us. 0.0001% of us bother to delve into the infinite gold mine of life-changing music because there's a marketing firm standing at the entrance saying " no need to waste your time in there, we've already found all the best ones, here they are" AND WE BELIEVE THEM! the truth is this, no one reading this comment has ever even heard their favorite song in the world yet, because you haven't bothered to go looking for it, and SHAME on the radio stations and streaming services and record labels and marketing firms who have convinced you that it's not worth trying. throw your top 40s playlists IN THE GARBAGE! and go take a swim in the boundless ocean of incredible music you've never even taken a second look at. /Rant

  16. So very interesting, nice.
    Do remember however years ago, CD era we had to pay $15 to $20 for a CD that had only one song we liked. But do agree artists all should be payed fairly.

  17. From the time we are born, background music from our parents records, siblings and friends are filling our ears. For music artists, being creative has become so hard. Music copyrights are doing the equivalent of forcing a painter to use only colors that are not on the Pantone scale, or others colors, copyrighted like the Tiffany blue.

  19. If I pay to see a movies or ear song that I like, I definitelly want the people that made them to get a bigger portion of MY money and not some commercial hyped thing they (tried to) shove down my throat.

  20. Olá, você. Há pouco, eu compus uma musica em homenagem cadela, Poly, de 13 anos que faleceu recentemente em decorrência de um tumor. Foi uma grande perda, então se você puder ouvir significaria muito pra mim (é meu ultimo envio). Obrigado

    perdão por estar comentando assim, não faço a menor ideia de como divulgar isso

  23. The old model was not that fair either; Why should an album with simple pop music cost the same as one of the philharmonics?
    I would never pay more than maybe 4-5$ for an Elton John album, while I would gladly pay +25$ for Al Di Meola, or some well made J.S. Bach performance.

  24. This is absurd. You write a song that resonates with people or it doesn't. The only thing a copyright does is prevent others from taking credit fom the creator's creation on paper. That doesn't stop others from making money of of it. Copyright makes it easier to basterdize a creation by those with the money and "authority" by taking control away from the creator. The song writer and the singer is a prime example. This is also proven by the nonsense that is constantly discussed on "Ted Talk". The less the creator is seen and heard, the more the creation is taken away and twisted to suit the purposes of others that wish to utilize what isn't theirs to gain money, "authority" and influence. Back to the subject at hand. The singer will always get the credit and clout. Then they often use that clout to spread their own views instead of the creator's views, which is whear the views originated in the first place. The "protection" of a copyright is an illusion.

  26. Music streaming platforms like Spotify are indeed already upping their fee…but who cares talking about the "money". I mean I'm a song-writer myself and I've decided it's ok not to get any money, even if I'm streaming on multiple platforms. I do it for the fun.

    Let's talk about the music really. Average people are happy with what's popular. It's always been that way. And pop music is all about repetition, familiarity, and so on.
    So it just makes sense that what we will get is more and more of the same and we will get used to more of the same, 'till we won't want anything different than what's average.
    Ever seen the movie Idiocracy?

    But if the average person goes a little further than what they're being told to listen to, they'll find a hidden world of interesting artists out there.
    The change always comes from the people ..and in this case people's taste.

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