A new study finds that the odds of striking it rich on the video service, or even making a modest living, are tiny.

“In music, song streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music have mostly benefited superstar acts. No one needs to fight a music label to get their song distributed, but getting listeners is a different problem.

Less than 1 percent of songs represented 86 percent of the music streamed last year, according to the market research firm Nielsen.

And because few people buy music these days, making even a little money from streaming requires songs to be played millions of times. That has hurt the music industry’s middle-of-the-road acts the most, the kind of musician who once could eke out a decent living selling several thousand albums a year and touring the nation without ever breaking into the mainstream. Increasingly, such acts face the pressure of going viral or going home.”

Why almost no one is making a living on YouTube

A new study finds that the odds of striking it rich on the video service, or even making a modest living, are tiny.

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