"Spotify Wrapped"

Transcript
Page 1. The World On A String. Volume 4 Number 6. Caption reads, "Are you supporting your musical favorites?" CC BY-SA Ken Alleman 2020. Defunct link. Image is of the cast of the World On A String looking out at the reader as if in judgment.

Page 2. Caption reads, "December is the time o fyear when the big music streaming services show you your most listened-to artists. Image is a mock screenshot. Band name is "the Heavy Dinosaurs," with 4.7 million streams, 27.12 million streaming hours, 8.53 million listeners, and 23 countries.

Page 3. Caption reads, "Streaming services benefit artists by making their music easily accessible around the world." In the image, set against the backdrop of a cartoon Earth, is two people on opposite sides of the world, a flow of arrows with music notes from one person, the musician, to the other, the fan, with a corporate-looking office style building as the intermediary.

Page 4. Caption reads, "But it's important to understand that artists earn next to nothing from these services." Inset is the illustration from the previous page. Below that is a list of statistics. Number of streams today: 10,000. Dollars per stream: one third of a cent. Total payment: $33.33.

Page 5. Caption reads, "To make sure your favorites are seeing the benefits fo your support, here's what you can do." A reprise of the image from page 4. This time, the arrows flow in the reverse order--from the fan back to the musician--and they are interspersed with dollar signs which steer around the corporate office building.

Page 6. Text page. The captions read, "Catch them on tour! Obviously only works once we're no longer in the middle of an uncontrolled pandemic! Purchase their music! Either by ordering it on physical media or by digital download! Buy merch! Lots of it! Give them money! See if they have a membership or donation platform, such as Patreon or Ko-Fi. Just give 'em cash!"

Page 7. Caption reads, "In the absence of a corporate solution that guarantees payment to musicians, it's up to us, the consumers, to show our support!" Final image is of the cast looking to the reader once again, waving or otherwise signaling various degrees of approval.

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