Taylor Swift and Aloe Blacc are amongst artists taking a stand against streaming giants Pandora, Spotify, and more for their “unfair compensation of artists.”
Indeed, Blacc – who has wielded such recent top hits as ‘I Need A Dollar’ and ‘I’m the Man’ – made headlines this week after alleging his hits have been spun over 168 million times on the top streaming web sites. His compensation for the spin? A measly $4000.
He’s not the only one.
Music’s darling right now, ‘Shake It Off’ songstress Taylor Swift, has unceremoniously shaken off Spotify by yanking her music from the popular streaming site. A bold move she accompanied with this quote:
“I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists and creators of this music. I just don’t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free.”
Spotify’s CEO Daniel Elk feels Swift’s assessment is unfair. Read his response below and tell us how you feel:
Elk Via The Tennessean:
“You can’t look at Spotify in isolation — even though Taylor can pull her music off Spotify (where we license and pay for every song we’ve ever played), her songs are all over services and sites like YouTube and Soundcloud, where people can listen all they want for free.
Any way you cut it, one thing is clear — we’re paying an enormous amount of money to labels and publishers for distribution to artists and songwriters, and significantly more than any other streaming service.”
As it stands, Spotify pays artists an average of “between $0.006 and $0.0084” per stream. Do you feel that is enough money?
I only buy 0-3 albums a year if they are very good. Otherwise i t****** everything.
Now i spotify instead of torrenting, i’m sure these greedy labels will rather have me stream than t******.
That’s because only about 3 good albums come out per year that are purchase worthy, if artists want money, the work needs to match, otherwise the masses will T****** for sure.
Naw it’s cuz you’re broke 🙂
In more important news, Taylors 1989 suffered a 69% decrease in sales in its 2nd week! Albums that sell like 1989 do in their first week usually burn out even faster sales wise.
I think its set to sell like 400,000 units but thats still more sales than most artists do in their first week, or in the case of some artists (no names) they wish the album would sell that many units.
Red sold over 1M first week and ended up selling over 4M domestically and around 7M internationally! 1989 will do the same or even better since she’s full blown pop now!!
yes tay drag Spotify they contribute to low album sales you can literally listen to a full album for free ahead of time which affects album sales because you already heard the album their no mystery any more to album releases
Aw that sucks she won’t put her music there.
I hate how little Spotify pays but it they paid the greedy labels any more they would go bankrupt. Last year was the first time they ever made a profit. Also for a lot of indie bands I listen to, the majority of their fans stream their music. So I think it’s a good way to get their name out, and I don’t think it bothers them that much since they earn most money from touring.
Yo Bey!!! Get yo music off Spotify too!!!
I don’t understand spotify. If I like your music I will buy it. If I don’t. I won’t. And if i don’t like your music I surely ain’t checking for it on spotify or any other streaming site for that matter.
I dont get this nor itunes streams they’re basically asking for an artists music to be ripped and uploaded on youtube.. once there u can split the files or w/e
how about an artist drop ONE single like they used to, release an album & call it a day
Not a fan of Taylor Swift so doesn’t bother me…
Bruhhh, to be quite honest Taylor Swift is an example of an honest to God musically talented artist taking a stand to better the quality of the music industry, I would HATE to work for a company and them only give me $0.006 a minute to work….point blank period I think all of the major artists need to take that stand, and she’s not the first one, Rihanna did that with her Talk That Talk for the LONGEST it was not on there and once it was dull and flavorless she put it out there.
Yep just use the ‘writers’ as an excuse for your tight ways.
there is this new commentor in tgj called Sherry
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she could be great but she doesn’t have the IT factor
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so she goes unnoticed and ray charlsed
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😆
That’s because I’m not that messy, but I can drag like a black/Latina queen. Don’t try it huntyyyyy. 😆
Thanks for the shout out though babe. Obviously you’re not blind. Smoooches! 😉
Yea, but she can get it tho.
lol #thirsty
Oooppppsss! Hey Marky Mark lol
@FAF
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I ASKED YOU A QUESTION B****. I SAID WHEN IS YOUR STRUGGLING SENIOR ASS CHANGING YOUR CARTOON AVATAR?????
Oh sweetheart, it’s a Ciara stan. I would be hiding my fav from my avi too. 🙂
hahahahahaha , shots fired!!!!!
but guys am I ever on topic in posts?
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(“._.)
a stream is better than a t******, she was stupid for pulling that move
I highly doubt Taylor is concerned with illegal downloads when her albums sell the way they do.
but then she gets more cash in royalties than most of our faves. she’s still winning
This is not fair lol. Spotify should at least consider creating a tier system so that once the song reaches 100,000, 500,000 and then a million spins, the money per song rate gets higher each level. If they are making enough money to pay out anything at all, they must be profiting most of it. As for Taylor swift’s statement, she could have had a better choice of words, she just perpetuated that music is all about money, and that’s not the vibe you want to give off if you consider yourself a true artist.
I get where Taylor is coming from. Think about all the work that goes into an album when the artist is actually involved. Two years of creating the album plus another two years of pushing it via a grueling tour schedule only to have it streamed for ridiculously low rates. It devalues the music and gives people less of an instinctive to buy an album. Artist get money from touring and endorsements, so I highly doubt greed is a motive for Taylor.
This story is 2 weeks old. I just can’t anymore with y’all lazy asses.
Yet your punk ass here. STFU and get on your knees to pray to God that you don’t have to be such a pathetic b**** anymore
No sympathy for any of this. People should be buying CDs. Not streaming or using torrents. Buy CDs.
She makes bank already why does she care!!!!
Wow I thought the BeeHive was delusional but I was wrong. This b**** is so delusional, she thinks she actually has artistry and creates timeless music. Lol. You pathetic c***. Even after all of those albums, you still have had more guys between your legs than you sold in your first well. Sit down b****.
She should be thankful they even pay her 0.006 per stream of her garbage music. You’d have to pay me to listen to it.
i like spotify they should pay more but it’s so damn accessible
wow Blank space has already over 17 million views.. in 1 day.
Love the video!
She´s useless and doesn´t deserve the position she has in American music market right now. But I agree with her on this. Finally, she´s useful 🙂