Are you a musician and earn little from Spotify? Burn more records, suggests CEO

With the rise of music streaming platforms, with emphasis on Spotify, the debate related to the payment that artists receive has become widespread and frequent. Musicians believe that they do not receive the amounts due for their work – and according to the amounts we know, they are right.

In 2020, a report released by the website Business Insider pointed out that artists received only US$ 0.0033 for each reproduction of their music on Spotify. It’s less than half a cent on the dollar. So you need 300 plays/streams to receive a dollar for his work.

To USA Todaya 22-year-old singer named Mackenzie Miller said that her single “peach lemonade” received nearly 14,000 plays in the first few weeks of its release. However, his pay was barely $5. That’s because it doesn’t mean you’ll get paid $0.0033 per song play (this is an average amount) and because rights holders and distributors get paid too.

The company defended itself by explaining that artists are not paid for streambut by a system called “streamshare”, which may vary depending on how the track is broadcast or agreements with licensors.

“Every month, in every country we operate in, we calculate the streamshare adding up how many times music owned or controlled by a given rights holder has been streamed and dividing by the total number of streams in that market.”

Record more, says Spotify CEO

The explanation of thestreamshare” was somewhat political and moderate, coming from advisers to the Spotify. If it depends on the CEO of the platform, Daniel Ekthe answer to the dilemma is much more straightforward: he believes that artists are complaining without offering much in return.

In an interview with MusicAllyin 2020, ok declared that, in fact, there are no complaints that demonstrate the musicians’ real dissatisfaction with the remuneration values.

“Privately, they praise the Spotify. However, they are not encouraged to do this in public. There are more and more artists who are able to live off of streaming income alone.”

Then came the statement that musicians really need to work harder. A surprising speech, considering the amount of complaints about the values.

“Some artists earned more in the past and nowadays they may not earn as much, because nowadays it is not possible for someone to record music every 3 or 4 years and think that that will be enough. The artists who are making their mark these days know that it is necessary to engage with fans on an ongoing basis. When releasing an album, you need to have a story about it and continue to communicate with fans. Those who are not doing well on streaming platforms are, for the most part, those who want to release music the way it was before.”

musicians riot

the interview of Daniel Ek, as expected, was not well received by other musicians at the time. Member of dozens of bands, the drummer Mike Portnoy (The Winery Dogsformerdream theater) called the executive a “greedy bitch” in a publication on Instagram.

“It’s bad enough that he makes billions based on theft and free distribution of music, but now he suggests we make more music so he can earn more money. For the record, I released 8 full albums in 2020 and I’m going to get crumbs from them. F*ck this guy and f*ck the Spotify. Support artists directly if you want them to continue making music.”

Died this January at the age of 81, David Crosby also hit ok. At the time of the CEO’s interview, it was the beginning of the pandemic – and the musician even said in the period that he could lose his home if he was prevented from playing shows.

You’re nasty, greedy shit, Daniel Ek.

the comment of crosby shared a message from the former bassist of REM, Mike Millswhich also said:

Music = product, and it must be produced regularly, says billionaire Daniel Ek. Fuck off.

You are an obnoxious greedy little shit Daniel Ek https://t.co/8tZx55LeDe

— David Crosby (@thedavidcrosby) July 31, 2020