He says spotify give 75% of the revenue back but it goes to labels and labels choose to only pay artists 10-15%. That’s incredibly self-serving and disingenuous and I think factually untrue in the case of small artists in particular.
Firstly Spotify have huge market power which they could easily use to benefit artists if they cared about it. They could bake in to their deals with labels a minimum cut for artists and labels would have no option but to pay this. They don’t do this even though there would be basically no downside to them which suggests they don’t care about it.
Secondly in the cases I know about directly (which are small artists on independent labels often that they own themselves) the amount spotify pays per stream is derisory. They own the label so are getting 100% of the cut from spotify, but the actual amount is just tiny. Spotify could easily rebalance the scale such that small artists are supported. Again this wouldn’t hurt them but they don’t do it.
The real reason that artists get paid so little is that sharks like spotify (and the labels too) feel they can get away with it, which largely and very sadly appears to be true.
What use is market power when the big three have lawsuit power? Spotify operates on their mercy. The only reason they haven't destroyed it is that they own a sizable chunk of it. And let's be clear, Ek is fine with this arrangement.
Spotify could (and should) "rebalance the scales" with per-user licensing, rather than per-play licensing. That would reward the music that's actually keeping users subscribed, rather than makers of replaceable background music that plays 12/6 in some hair salon.
But last time there was a push for that, the (big three) labels stopped it. Now, the labels claim to be open to it but Spotify is resisting it - I think it may be the labels yanking the chain still.
Firstly Spotify have huge market power which they could easily use to benefit artists if they cared about it. They could bake in to their deals with labels a minimum cut for artists and labels would have no option but to pay this. They don’t do this even though there would be basically no downside to them which suggests they don’t care about it.
Secondly in the cases I know about directly (which are small artists on independent labels often that they own themselves) the amount spotify pays per stream is derisory. They own the label so are getting 100% of the cut from spotify, but the actual amount is just tiny. Spotify could easily rebalance the scale such that small artists are supported. Again this wouldn’t hurt them but they don’t do it.
The real reason that artists get paid so little is that sharks like spotify (and the labels too) feel they can get away with it, which largely and very sadly appears to be true.