A feature published by the Guardian newspaper in which musicians were asked a series of questions about ‘pop’s future after coronavirus’ has seen some blistering criticism of Spotify’s ‘Artist Fundraising Pick’.
“It’s offensive to artists that are putting the music on that platform and it’s offensive to the consumer. It’s a platform owning up to the fact that there’s an issue, and the Band-Aid they are putting around that issue is to make it the consumer’s problem to fix it,” said Jack Garratt. “It’s a load of fucking horseshit… a PR cover-up for a situation where we’re not being paid clearly for having our music on their platform,” added James McGovern of The Murder Capital. However, Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara suggested the problem is wider. “Instead of asking consumers to solve the problem, the industry needs to have a reckoning about the way we value music, and that needs to be platform-wide,” she said. “It would be good PR for Spotify: ‘We’re going to increase everyone’s subscription by a couple of bucks and instead of us putting those dollars back into our nest, we’re going to distribute that money in an equitable way to the people that create the music.’”
Meanwhile, Everything Everything’s Jeremy Pritchard defended Spotify. “Compared to other digital platforms that don’t even have the decency to identify themselves as streaming services, it has at least tried to monetise things for artists…”
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