Our first great Spotify debate happened in December of last year and it ended with yours truly advising everyone to listen to artists (especially independent ones) rather than corporations / major labels / Spotify itself. Time to check whether anyone actually did…

Spotify lost $4 billion in market value this week.

— scott budman (@scottbudman) January 28, 2022

Judging by #cancelspotify hashtag trending it seems that people certainly listened to artists, albeit not for the reasons I was hoping they would. No, the reason why massive cancellation happened was Joe Rogan, the former Fear Factor host and the current star of his own podcast, paid handsomely by Spotify to promote Ivermectin and figure out what constitutes blackness with his pal Jordan Peterson (latter tuxedoed for the occasion).

Subsequently, both Joni Mitchell and Neil Young issued public statements on leaving the platform due to blatant spread of misinformation. While I stand with both for raising their voices and speaking out against a streaming giant, the sad part is that largely missing from this conversation is an issue of Spotify cutting off working musicians at the knees.

By focusing too much on Rogan, both of them missed an opportunity to highlight just how harmful Spotify’s dominance came to be to lesser-known musicians. In other words – how is blatant misinformation more of a reason to cancel the service than the fact that streaming became a boon to consumers and major labels, but not creators themselves (1% not withstanding)?

Spotify has almost single handedly destroyed the music industry. It pays artists 3000$ if they have a million listens. 3000$!

It has devalued art In to a commodity.

And it also sounds considerably worse than a media released in 1980.

And now you complain?

— KORELACE (@t_authoritarian) January 29, 2022

It didn’t help matters when back in 2020 Spotify founder Daniel Ek advised artists to work harder and release albums more often. That story generated a significant amount of backlash, but nowhere on the scale of Young/Mitchell leaving Spotify and blaming the platform for being a bad actor. Moreover, yours truly can recall quite a few Twitter conversations happening around the time in which artists were said to be lazy and entitled. Exhibit A:

They be trying to book you for 30 or more minutes for drink tickets. Rather get taken advantage of by streams.

— SIMPly Black (@shadecobain) October 14, 2020

You earn what you’re worth?

— Things Bands Say (@ThingsBandsSay) October 14, 2020

If no one purchases art by person X, person X’s art is worth zero. Just like any other product or service.

— Things Bands Say (@ThingsBandsSay) October 17, 2020

Well, allow me to retort…

What a horrible, horrible, horrible place to be stuck in as an artist/musician – a binary choice between being taken advantage of by venues or by streaming platforms. On top of that you also get claims that its solely the fault of working-class musicians. No, just no.

Its not the fault of working musicians for playing along to Spotify’s fiddle. Spotify may not be the only bad actor when it comes to streaming conglomerates, but it certainly is the worst in terms of promises broken and abandoned, one of which included helping indie musicians thrive.

Solutions?

Regulation of streaming / hearings – currently happening in UK. US? Not so likely to happen over here, in my opinion, though the wheels of justice turn slowly / never say never. Currently we have UMAW and Future of Music Coalition fighting on behalf of musicians/artists.

Just let Spotify/streaming eat itself – rumors are swirling that Foo Fighters are next to drop Spotify. Much like Barry Manilow’s exit from the platform it may well turn out to be another hoax/fantasy, especially considering Grohl’s own comments from the past. Guess we’ll see…

Get a job to fund your art – seemingly a no-brainer, if it wasn’t for the amount of soul-crushing jobs out there. There’s a book on the subject too.

Patreon – the upcoming decade will see artists taking more control of their own work if Jack Conte, Patreon’s CEO, is to be believed.

Spotify Alternatives / See Also

Bandcamp – personal favorite and a place where you can buy the records we put out. It pays amazingly well and its very much an old-school record store to Spotify’s drab commercial radio station. Worthy read – a thread by Kizunaut on how BC, while great, could’ve done even more to promote itself.

Your Local Record Store – sadly nearly forgotten by now, but highly recommended for a visit.

Thread by James Thornhill – discussion of Tidal, Apple Music, Resonate, Audius and many more

SongShift – mentioned in a fascinating Spotify thread by Elise Tyler 

BNDCMPR / Buy Music Club / Merch Table – a suite of tools to make playlists with Bandcamp

Thread by Yasmin Williams – highlighting some of the issues with Neil Young’s approach. Also includes some thoughtful comments by Lilli Lewis

Thread by Deerhoof

The Masters Own You by Rich Woodall – great primer on how needlessly bloated the modern music business is

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