Nerval’s Lobster writes “Spotify wants to change the perception that it’s killing artists’ ability to make a living off music. In a new posting on its Website, the streaming-music hub suggests that songs’ rights-holders earn between $0.006 and $0.0084 per stream, on average, and that a niche indie album on the service could earn an artist roughly $3, 300 per month (a global hit album, on the other hand, would rack up $425, 000 per month). ‘We have succeeded in growing revenues for artists and labels in every country where we operate, and have now paid out over $1 billion USD in royalties to-date ($500 million of which we paid in 2013 alone), ‘ the company wrote. ‘We have proudly achieved these payouts despite having relatively few users compared to radio, iTunes or Pandora, and as we continue to grow we expect that we will generate many billions more in royalties.’ But does that really counter all those artists (including Grizzly Bear and Damon Krukowski of Galaxie 500) who are on the record as saying that Spotify streaming only earns them a handful of dollars for tens of thousands of streaming plays? Let’s say an artist earns $0.0084 per stream; it would still take 400, 000 ‘plays’ per month in order to reach that indie-album threshold of approximately $3, 300. (At $0.006 per stream, it would take 550, 000 streams to reach that baseline.) If Spotify’s ‘specific payment figures’ with regard to albums are correct, that means its subscribers are listening to a lot of music on repeat. And granted, those calculations are rough, but even if they’re relatively ballpark, they end up supporting artists’ grousing that streaming music doesn’t pay them nearly enough. But squeezed between labels and publishers that demand lots of money for licensing rights, and in-house expenses such as salaries and infrastructure, companies such as Spotify may have little choice but to keep the current payment model for the time being.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Spotify’s Own Math Suggests Musicians Are Still Getting Hosed
A long lost Thanksgiving tradition is resurrecting from the grave. The annual Mystery Science Theater 3000 marathon will return this year. It’s a holiday miracle! Read more… 
After its acquisition of Waze this past June, Google announced this morning that it is deploying real time incident reports from Waze users to Google Maps mobile and apps users. Waze users can now search with Google, too. And if you’re into mapmaking, the Waze Map Editor now includes Google Street View. [ Google and Waze ] Read more… 
mcgrew writes “Forbes has an article about a new type of fuel cell that is 90% less costly than current cells at one tenth the size (making it the size of a dishwasher), with far higher efficiency than current cells. It runs at only 149 degrees Celsius (300F) . It was jointly developed by Diverse Energy and the University of Maryland. ‘The first-generation Cube runs off natural gas, but it can generate power from a variety of fuel sources, including propane, gasoline, biofuel and hydrogen. The system is a highly efficient, clean technology, emitting negligible pollutants and much less carbon dioxide than conventional energy sources. It uses fuel far more efficiently than an internal combustion engine, and can run at an 80 percent efficiency when used to provide both heat and power.’ It produces enough power to run a moderate-sized grocery store, or five homes. A smaller, home-sized unit is on the way. Is the municipal power plant on the way out?” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
First time accepted submitter rpopescu writes “Thom Yorke of Radiohead fame has pulled his solo album ‘Eraser’ (as well as music made as Atoms for Peace) from the music streaming service Spotify, as a protest at how much it pays the artists. Quote: ‘”Make no mistake. These are all the same old industry bods trying to get a stranglehold on the delivery system.”‘” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 