Dear Fan,
As an artist, my ultimate goal is to connect with you through my music. Your support, whether you’re listening on a streaming platform, buying my music or sharing my songs with a friend, means the world to me. It’s because of this connection that I want to be completely transparent with you about a change I’m making: I’m removing some of my discography from streaming platforms that don’t fairly compensate artists.
Why I’m Making This Change
The music industry has changed dramatically, and streaming has become the dominant way we listen to music. However, not all streaming services are built the same when it comes to paying artists.
Many platforms, like Spotify and Apple Music, use what’s called a “pro-rata” royalty model, or a royalty pool system. This means they take all the revenue they make from subscriptions and ads, put it into a big “pool,” and then distribute it to artists based on their percentage of total streams.
This system has a major flaw: it doesn’t directly pay for each individual stream. Instead, your monthly subscription fee is spread out among all artists on the platform, with a disproportionate amount going to a small number of major artists. The result is that many independent artists like me receive very little to no money from this system, despite the time, effort, and resources I put into my work. This practice is, in my view, not in line with what copyright law was designed to do in Brazil and other countries: ensure creators are fairly compensated for their artistic work.
I am committed to a more transparent and direct relationship with my fans. This is why I am now prioritizing my website to distribute my music directly as well as some streaming platforms that use a more direct payment model.
Where You Can Find, download and Listen to My Music
This Website: This is the most direct way to listen to my music and support me. When you buy my entire discography from my website, all the revenue goes directly to me. It allows me to continue making the music you love without worrying about unfair royalty systems. In practice, after buying my entire discography, you will be granted with a lifetime access to my website and this access will allow you to download all my actual and future albums.
YouTube: I am keeping my music on YouTube because their payment model is different. YouTube pays artists directly for each stream based on ad revenue and YouTube Premium subscriptions. This means that when you listen to my music or watch my videos on YouTube, your support translates directly into fair compensation for my work. You will find the links to each album on this website om each album page.
Spotify: Some albums are available but not all discography.
Best Way to Support me
The best way to support me as an artist is to buy all my tracks (present and future) for a unique price directly from this website.
Thank you for understanding and for your continued support. It’s because of you that I can continue to create.
Sincerely,
Emergency Light (César Ramos)
