If artists can’t make a living wage from millions of plays of their content, it’s not a valid model.
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Failure’s Ken Andrews, Greg Edwards and Kellii Scott ( who have pulled their music down from Spotify)Įxploiting artists for profit was not invented by Spotify, but it does seem like they were better than anyone else at taking that exploitation to a completely new level, perfecting it with clever use of public assets and software automation.
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Songwriters of North America, a grassroots advocacy organization fighting for the rights of professional songwriters, have tirelessly pushed back on Spotify’s appeals to the Copyright Royalty Board-appeals that would enable them to pay musicians even less.Īlso Read Neil Young to Spotify Employees: ‘Get Out of That Place Before It Eats up Your Soul’īelow, in their own words for SPIN, eight artists and one record label share perspectives on the many issues at Spotify-from Rogan to royalties and beyond. The U.K.-based campaign #BrokenRecord, spearheaded by Gomez’s Tom Gray, has also focused on equitable remuneration for musicians, and brought an inquiry into streaming economics to Parliament. Nearly 30,000 musicians, including me, signed on in support of these demands, and that number is growing daily in 2021, protests were held globally outside of 15 Spotify offices.Īnd UMAW is far from the only organization pushing demands like these. the company’s current payout of approximately $.0038 per stream) transparency surrounding existing payola and hidden major label deals a cessation of Spotify-initiated lawsuits meant to further reduce songwriter royalties. In 2020, the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (at which I am a co-organizer) launched its Justice at Spotify campaign, which demands, among other changes: a penny payout per stream (vs. And while much of that discography is now streamable, he’s continued to voice support for artists like Geoff Barrow decrying the woeful royalties their labor earns on the DSP. Beginning in 2014, Taylor Swift’s catalog was unavailable for nearly three years on the streaming service, after she noted she was “not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music.” Radiohead’s Thom Yorke colorfully described Spotify as “the last fart of a dying corpse” in a 2013 statement explaining his band’s decision to take down its discography.
Music fans en masse showed their support, opting to #DeleteSpotify and contributing to a company market loss reported between $2.1 billion to $4 billion-meaning an estimated $1 billion plummet in net worth for founder and CEO Daniel Ek due to his stake in the company’s shares.īut working musicians and superstars alike have long cited under-compensation issues at Spotify as a reason for fans and artists to seek alternative platforms. His critique quickly snowballed, with other notable artists removing their own music in protest of Spotify’s profit off Rogan’s message via an exclusive, $100 million-dollar deal-including Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, and india.arie (who significantly noted Rogan’s “language around race”).
In late January, Neil Young issued an ultimatum to Spotify in response to The Joe Rogan Experience’s willful platforming of vaccine misinformation-resulting in Young’s catalog’s swift takedown from the streaming service.