Following the news that Mercury Prize nominee Nadine Shah cannot pay her rent due to Spotify’s unfair streaming rates, TV and film composer Rael Jones has hit out at the famous streaming site.
“Spotify is like a greedy fat parasite on the music industry. At initial glance, it’s clear they are guzzling a huge proportion of the creator’s money” Rael suggests.
Being championed as one of the most inventive and skilled British composers currently working, Rael Jones (composer and multi-instrumentalist) has been nominated for three primetime Emmys, a World Soundtrack Award and won a Golden Reel.
“At a more insidious level, it is actually disrupting the music itself. With the dominance of the pay-per-play streaming model, it makes it advantageous to write a larger number of a short songs. There is pressure to write music that fits into a genre trend or suits popular playlists rather than trying to write something genuinely new”
Marking the fifth anniversary of his Mum’s passing, Rael, known for composing ‘Harlots’ ‘The Salisbury Poisonings’ and ‘My Cousin Rachel’, released his new album Mother Echo. He has recently championed Bandcamp in comparison to Spotify claiming that Bandcamp “put the artist first” and “it cherishes the connection between artists and fans”.
And he is not the only artist to speak out against Daniel Ek’s infamous platform. Shah told The Guardian “The earnings from streaming are not significant enough to keep the wolf away from the door. I have a substantial profile, a substantial fanbase, I’m critically acclaimed but I don’t make enough money from streaming and am struggling to pay my rent. I am a successful musician, but I am just not being paid fairly for the work that I make.”
Taylor Swift also pulled all her music off Spotify in 2014. “Music in art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for,” she said. “It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is. I hope they don’t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art.”
With Bandcamp also offering to give artists 100% of profits at times throughout lockdown, this not only helped smaller musicians but helped raise awareness of the strain that the music industry was under during the pandemic.
Bandcamp CEO, Ethan Diamond, said “With such a major revenue stream drying up almost entirely, finding ways to continue supporting artists in the coming months is now an urgent priority for anyone who cares about music and the artists who create it.”
There seems to be no end to this debate. It is one that has been happening for years and can continue for years. It is hard for upcoming musicians to have their music listened to with no income to follow. It is considered that Spotify devalues music and artists don’t see the 70% revenue Spotify supposedly put back into the music industry. What do you think?
Does Spotify have artist’s best interest at heart?
Or is it indeed the greedy fat parasite of the music industry?
Let us know in the comments
Words by Jasmine Hodge
Image taken from tunefinds.com
skype – quitegr8
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