Neil Young’s removal of his catalogue from Spotify last year sparked a small wave of similar action by likeminded artists, but not a bigger trend. However, leaving Spotify is still A Thing, and the latest musician to do it is American artist Damien Jurado.
“I simply cannot continue to support or align myself with a corporation who continues to profit off of the musicians it refuses to pay a fair and decent living wage,” wrote Jurado in a Facebook post.
“Keep in mind that it is only Spotify that I am removing my music from. Platforms such as TIDAL, Apple Music, etc. will stay in place. Understand that I am in no way, shape or form, anti streaming. I accept reality. I however do not accept unacceptable business practices, and unfair treatment of artists.”
Jurado didn’t elaborate on why Spotify’s business practices are worse than those rival platforms. It’s possible it’s a decision driven by the widely-shared tables comparing per-stream payouts – where Spotify, with its free tier, falls below its rivals.
Jurado currently has just over 780,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, so it’s not a decision taken lightly – or one that should be too casually shrugged off by the streaming service.
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