Gary Numan: I was paid £37 for one million song streams

Gary Numan has revealed a million streams of one of his songs earned him just £37.

The Cars singer-songwriter made the revelation while discussing the government’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee inquiry into the economics of music streaming, which continues this week.

Synth pioneer Numan, 62, told Sky News: “I had a statement a while back and one of my songs had had over a million plays, million streams, and it was £37. I got £37 from a million streams."

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He went on: "I printed out, I think it was about a year ago, a statement – my streaming statement came in and I didn't look at it, I just put it to print, and I looked over about half an hour later, it was still printing.

"It was hundreds and hundreds of pages. And the end of it was, like, £112. It was barely worth the [paper] it was printed on, and it took nearly half an hour to print. You know, it's so much stuff, so much streaming, and there's absolutely nothing in it."

Numan said music streaming platforms – such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Google Play – need to pay more for the songs they use, adding: “They're getting it for nothing.”

His comments come three of the UK’s biggest record labels - Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music - appeared before MPs for the latest session of the hearing, along with representatives from licensing bodies.

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The inquiry has already heard from Elbow frontman Guy Garvey, Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien, Nile Rodgers and singer-songwriter Nadine Shah.

Music streaming services are facing increased scrutiny as they replace purchases of physical copies of recordings - as industry figures claims it cannot survive on the low earnings.

The problem has been enhanced due to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown restrictions impacting on live music – which has become the financial backbone of the industry.

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