**Guest post written by Greg Fuhs, co-manager of indie label Dying Code Media and member of indie bands Anti-Social Club and Object X.

 

 

 

"As you may have heard, Spotify recently announced that it will no longer pay royalties for songs receiving less than 1,000 streams per year, instead redirecting those funds to artists with songs exceeding that threshold. The company claims this is to better support “emerging and professional artists” and estimates they will redistribute as much as $1 billion over five years. They also claim that small indie artists won’t miss this money – although I don’t think Spotify asked any of us about this.

In fact, almost two-thirds of the 100 million-plus tracks on Spotify do not reach the 1,000-stream threshold, meaning MANY artists will no longer receive payment from the platform for their creative work. Furthermore, the ones that still do (and for many, the major labels that sponsor them) will now receive part of their streaming revenue from funds that used to go to lesser-known artists for their streams.

If that sounds like stealing to you, that’s because it is! And while the amount per artist may be small (although in some cases it could be substantial), it doesn’t make Spotify’s policy of theft any less wrong. Especially considering Spotify has many other ways that they could find more revenue to better support ALL artists on the platform (e.g., cutting back on massive executive compensation packages, spending less on lavish office spaces around the world, and/or raising their Premium subscription fee a tiny amount, to name a few), their policy is not only wrong but downright sickening.
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Why it matters

It should be obvious why this hurts small artists. Between production, distribution, and marketing costs, they already are in the hole financially just getting their music on the platform. For Spotify to then eliminate any chance for these artists to recoup their costs over time – unless their music happens to reach and maintain an arbitrary popularity threshold – only makes an already uphill battle even harder. And if Spotify is allowed to get away with this, it is not unreasonable to worry that other streaming platforms may eventually follow suit.

Most indie artists aren’t on Spotify or other streaming services for the money. Primarily we love creating and sharing music with the world, we value giving listeners options on where to find our music, and none of us expect anything close to a living wage from streaming revenue. However, most of us do expect at least some fair return for streams of our creative work, and we’re definitely not okay with having our pockets picked – even if it’s just a few dollars.
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This policy also hurts listeners – especially those using Spotify (the largest streaming platform with more than 600 million users). For one, it creates a disincentive for small indie artists to put their music on the platform. Why bother if you’ll not only get nothing for your work, but also see that money handed over to artists and labels who had nothing to do with it? In response, some artists have already started pulling their songs from Spotify, which means that listeners – especially those who enjoy the rich tapestry of indie underground music out there – will have less available to them over time.

This also violates the listener’s right to support the artists they love. When I stream Band X, I assume that Band X or at least their label will get some share of that revenue – NOT that it will instead be given to Band Y or Label Z who have nothing to do with Band X. If I’m a listener with any sense of fairness and decency, this feels clearly wrong and creates a disincentive for me to use Spotify at all.

Finally, if I’m an artist whose music DOES consistently meet the 1,000-stream threshold, do I really want my Spotify royalties coming from the pockets of my lesser-known peers? Again, assuming I have a normal sense of fairness and decency, and considering I was a lesser-known artist myself earlier in my music career, I seriously doubt it.

So ultimately, this policy creates an unnecessarily bad situation for virtually everyone involved. While no streaming platform is perfect, Spotify’s shameless reverse Robin Hood scheme crosses a red line and needs to be stopped.
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What to do about it

If we want to achieve some semblance of fairness in the streaming marketplace, then rolling over and accepting Spotify’s royalty theft is not an option – and there are many ways to fight it. Ultimately, legislation and lawsuits likely will be needed to protect indie artists from such injustice, but that will take a lot of time, money, and political will. In the meantime, one thing that can have more immediate impact is public pressure coming from the grassroots – namely the artists and listeners themselves.

To that end, my band Anti-Social Club has launched the Bye Bye Spotify Campaign. Rather than just leave the platform outright, we’ve released (including on Spotify) a protest song called “Bye Bye Spotify”, removed all our other music from the platform, and updated our artist bio to call out Spotify’s theft. We’re also encouraging other artists to follow suit, and asking listeners to help make the song go viral and consider canceling their Spotify Premium subscriptions if they have them. (I also recently canceled mine.) In addition, we’re donating any proceeds from downloads or streams of the song to The Music Collective Foundation to further support indie artists.
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The aim is to publicly shame Spotify and hit them in the pocketbook until they realize it is in their best interest to pay ALL artists fairly, regardless of streaming totals.

For more information and to support the campaign, visit https://linktr.ee/byebyespotify."

 

 

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