Mike Portnoy, Dee Snider + More Lash Out at Spotify CEO: ‘Greedy Little B*tch’
A number of rock and metal musicians have spoken out against comments made by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. After the streaming businessman claimed artists will need to record an album more often than once every three or four years to make sufficient income, artists like Mike Portnoy, Dee Snider, Sebastian Bach and others have voiced their own opinion.
Though streaming has given fans more access to music than ever before, royalty payouts to artists and record labels has been a source of contention. The official numbers do fluctuate, but according to various sources, Spotify pays amongst the lowest rates per stream compared to its competitors.
The lowest paying platform is YouTube, giving roughly $0.00074 to record labels per stream, though the number does fluctuate. Pandora is the second-least generous platform, followed by Spotify, which pays roughly $0.00397 per stream.
Amongst the major streaming platforms, Tidal pays out the most money, giving $0.01284 per stream. Rhapsody and Xbox also pay more than a penny per stream.
“Obviously, some artists that used to do well in the past may not do well in this future landscape, where you can't record music once every three to four years and think that's going to be enough," Ek told Music Ally. ‘But unequivocally, from the data, there are more and more artists that are able to live off streaming income in itself.”
“What a greedy little bitch...it’s bad enough that he’s worth BILLIONS based on stealing and giving away other musician’s music...but now he’s suggesting we need to make MORE music for HIM to make more money!!! F-@Spotify and F-@eldsjal” Mike Portnoy wrote on Twitter. “I have 8 full album releases in 2020 & will make PEANUTS on them (if anything at all...) So his theory of artists needing to make MORE music to succeed is shit! F-@eldsjal & F-@Spotify! Support THE ARTISTS DIRECTLY if you want them to be able to continue to make music…”
Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider reacted, “While you (the listener) benefit & enjoy spotify, it's part of what's killing a major income stream for artist/creators. The amount of artists 'rich enough' to withstand this loss are about .0001%. Daniel Ek's solution is for us to write & record more on our dime?! Fuck him!”
“When this guy puts out an album himself I will listen to him tell me about my albums,” tweeted Sebastian Bach.
Every Time I Die’s Keith Buckley wrote, “Sure, on one hand Spotify is vampiric and exploitative of naive talent. but on the other hand, $.17 split 5 ways every six months is income I never would have earned had I not sacrificed years of my life to making the music found there. so who’s to say, really.”
Meanwhile, David Crosby kept his statement simple: “You are an obnoxious greedy little shit Daniel Ek.”
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