Quite relevant after Spotify announced that it would not pay artists until they hit an as yet unannounced threshold. The fact that artists who use Spotify still have to pay their monthly £10.99 subscription fee is incredulous and downright cheeky. "Sorry, you need to have to have at least (for example) 1,000 streams to get paid the 30p that it generates. By the way, pay us our eleven quid subscription fee." Spotify says it's about being fairer to "working artists", but what does that even mean? I make my synthy music at home. I work very hard on it, but a) I don't make albums every day, since composition, article/novel writing and life take up a lot of my time), and b) I don't gig my one man in-the-box ambient music, for obvious reasons: it's hardly club-filling bangers to boogie to. Spotify also claim that this was to add quality control to the music in its catalogue. So, "unpopular" music is bad music? How naive do they think we are? We know EXACTLY how it works. Money talks. Mo' money, mo' curated playlist appearances. It's a nonsense, and how the industry is clawing back power from independent and working class artists. Great for Ed Sheeran, superstar, but not for Ed Smith, singer songwriter from Dagenham. Mind your head on the glass ceiling, you know? #musicfairness
Artists deserve to be paid when their music is played on any platform, including AM/FM radio. This #MusicFairness Awareness Month, along with musicFIRST, we're proud to support the American #MusicFairness Act! 📲 Learn more: grm.my/3FIWoN4
