A number of rock and metal musicians have slammed comments made by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. After the streaming businessman claimed artists will need to record an album more often than once every three or four years to make sufficient income, artists like Mike Portnoy, Dee Snider, Sebastian Bach and others have voiced their own opinion.
According to Loudwire, although streaming has allowed fans far more access to music, royalty payouts to artists, and record labels, has been a source of contention. The official numbers do fluctuate, but according to various sources, Spotify pays amongst the lowest rates per stream compared to its competitors.
The lowest paying platform is YouTube, giving roughly $0.00074 to record labels per stream, though the number does fluctuate. Pandora is the second-least generous platform, followed by Spotify, which pays roughly $0.00397 per stream.
“Obviously, some artists that used to do well in the past may not do well in this future landscape, where you can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough,” Ek told Music Ally. ‘But unequivocally, from the data, there are more and more artists that are able to live off streaming income in itself.”
“What a greedy little bitch…it’s bad enough that he’s worth BILLIONS based on stealing and giving away other musician’s music…but now he’s suggesting we need to make MORE music for HIM to make more money!!! F-@Spotify and F-@eldsjal” Mike Portnoy wrote on Twitter. “I have 8 full album releases in 2020 & will make PEANUTS on them (if anything at all…) So his theory of artists needing to make MORE music to succeed is shit! F-@eldsjal & F-@Spotify! Support THE ARTISTS DIRECTLY if you want them to be able to continue to make music…”
Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider reacted, “While you (the listener) benefit & enjoy spotify, it’s part of what’s killing a major income stream for artist/creators. The amount of artists ‘rich enough’ to withstand this loss are about .0001%. Daniel Ek’s solution is for us to write & record more on our dime?! F–k him!”
“When this guy puts out an album himself I will listen to him tell me about my albums,” tweeted Sebastian Bach.
18 Responses
Totally agree with the artists. I love Spotify but I hate that they don’t pay artists their fair earnings. Most of what I Spotify I have previously purchased on vinyl, cassette tape, CDs, DVDs, and now vinyl again. My wife just leased a new car and it has no CD player! It launches Apple CarPlay. As a consumer, we are stuck with streaming, but that doesn’t give those companies a right to rip-off musical artists.
In all honesty, I really, really miss the days where my favorite bands would release an album every year. The more music, the better. But in these times, I know that’s not financially feasible.
Am I the only person still downloading and paying for music? I don’t use Spotify or any other streaming service, mainly because i don’t want to use my 4G data (I don’t have unlimited WIFI), and i do understand the artist are not getting any$$ when i do so. I still go through iTunes to get my music. If everyone is using Spotify (which is all i hear about) how is anyone making $$? Even the bigger artists? And how is this allowed?
I don’t do any of that crap, I still buy CD’s! I think I’m the only one left who does that, well, besides Eddie! 😉
..and me (hand raised).
Doug, I’m the same way! I still buy CDs and I love my collection! I have no interest in streaming or buying a downloaded album. But it is wrong for artists to not get fairly compensated for their streamed music. I don’t know how streaming services get away with it, but maybe laws need to be changed or implemented to adjust to an ever changing world.
Absolutely, Dana! 😉 Old school! – that used to mean vinyl, now it also means CD’s! 🙂
Right on, bro! How could I forget Dana, and my brother from another mother?! 😉 Only slept for around 6 hours total for the last 3 days… well, that, and old age is creeping in! If this streaming sh-t stops, watch how fast CD’s come back!
Well, I don’t even stream music, I listen to Sirius and purchase CD’s still! I guess I’m a strange relic. I greatly dislike Pandora, seems like it just selects top 40 shit that I’ve heard relentlessly since I was a kid in the 70’s. I do use itunes software as a vehicle for my ipod and all the music I have on cd.
Between Mike Portnoy, Dee Snider & Sebastian Bach, that’s a lot of experience in the music biz, so I find them credible to speak on earnings. I’m sure Mr. Ek is a whiz at digital distribution, but it might serve him well to listen to those who create the content that makes him wealthy. I will admit, I was quite taken back to find out how wealthy he really is.