A very interesting article by David Friend at The Canadian Press was released today at CTV news. The post deals with the hardships that current musicians, who are not at the very top of the success ladder, experience when it comes to not being able to receive any significant income from the popular streaming services, such as Spotify or Apple Music. The article mentions even Juno-nominated artists sometimes receive checks for just “3 cents” for being played hthousands of times on Spotify. However pulling own music from such services (as artists such as Taylor Swift have previously done) would only mean such musician would completely distance himself and mostly his music from new possible audiences.

Pierre Bouvier from Simple Plan has been quoted in this article numerous times, explaining why a band like Simple Plan can feel helpless when it comes to music streaming services, even if they have millions of digital plays on their account.

“Bands like us are standing on the sidelines. We don’t really have the power to change anything. There is not a whole lot of money to be made unless you’re the top one per cent … streaming a billion … then you’re just swimming in it. But if you’re streaming a million … or 10 million that’s not really going to pay you anything.”

According to the post that is “one reason [Pierre Bouvier feels] less optimistic about the next generation of musicians hoping to make a living off recorded music.”

“I feel like if my kids told me right now [they wanted to get into music] I’d be like, ‘Forget about it.”‘