New methods to compensate artists in music streaming platforms

Abstract

We study the problem of measuring the popularity of artists in music streaming platforms and the ensuing methods to compensate them (from the revenues platforms raise by charging users). We uncover the space of popularity indices upon exploring the implications of several axioms capturing principles with normative appeal. As a result, we characterize several families of indices. Some of them are intimately connected to the Shapley value, the central tool in cooperative game theory. Our characterizations might help to address the rising concern in the music industry to explore new methods that reward artists more appropriately. We actually connect our families to the new royalties models, recently launched by Spotify and Deezer.

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