The People vs. Mr. Spotify

[Ducky]

Daniel Ek (the CEO of Spotify) has ruffled a lot of feathers with his rant about musicians needing to pump out music more often and complaining about their butt-hurt regarding money generated via his platform

I get there's fuck all money in streaming, but isn't he right? When you look at bands like Sabbath in their heyday they put out their first five stompers in about what, 2.5 years and toured the shit out of them.

Am I being naïve in thinking that 'back in the day' only the bigger bands made any money from record sales and that the majority of bands paid the bills via touring a new record? Some of the obscure stuff you can dig into on Spotify would've sold fuck all (if it had even secured a release) if we still had the same business model, so if they're putting a record out every three years and have a few thousand fans then yeah, no shit you won't make money from that.

I'm on can five of the evening so may be talking shite, but I recognise that consumption of most media has shifted to streaming, so is there some validity to what he's saying or is he a cunt?

https://www.stereogum.com/2093393/spotify-ceo-daniel-ek-streaming-income/news/?fbclid=IwAR3rDePUWn-a4CrmRs_nYqoc3wS71sn0vWHKY62H2Ku6ZbblIO6GpodatsE

[leatherface]

I have no problem with streaming platforms but I personally like owning physical copies. Not saying that to get cool points but it's just what I am personally used to. I feel that that current culture represents the opposite of all that, i.e. digital is the 'way' and someone like me is close to being a caveman. Music enjoyment should encompass other formats too, all of it is as equally as vital as the next.

[Juggz]

"Back in the day" labels invested in bands over a long term with a view to collecting profits on album three and four and on. Bands had access to great studios, skilled producers and engineers and, sometimes, A&R people who actually worked on artist development. It wasn't all cake and gravy, of course, but there was an investment from the business into the artist and their development.

Now, a band is expected to fund almost everything themselves and then hand over merch money too if they've signed up to something stupid. Spotify puts fuck all back into all but the most successful artists and relies on funds from people who listen to specialised music to fund it all. Fuck them. Fuck them into a pit full of shite and set it on fire.

[Eoin McLove]

Spotify seems like a con for small bands but isn't there something paradoxical in playing underground metal and having an underground ethos (mostly DIY activity with bands networking for themselves etc. ) and then handing your music over to Spotify to gain more exposure? Why give them your shit for free when you can just as easily stick your music on YouTube, get zero cash and free exposure? Does every underground metal band really need exposure on that level anyway? Would it not make better sense to try to target the specific audience that will understand what you're doing rather than put your album on Spotify for the crass masses to ignore? Probably a bit of an elitist attitude in certain people's eyes but I just don't really see what the benefit of this kind of contract has for a black, death or doom metal band. Tapes,  CDs and vinyl till death.

[Ollkiller]

Well I'm on the people side. Fuck Spotify. As said bands have to fund everything themselves now. That prick has made his living giving bands a pittance of revenue. He can get fucked.

[astfgyl]

Just saying fuck spotify while we're here.

[livingabortion]

Here's a potentially stupid question, (not using Spotify I don't know how it works), but people can  go straight to the musicians themselves and say "Fuck Spotify" and circumvent them, or are you paying for the convenience of the platfiorm?

[Juggz]

http://www.bandcamp.com 

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Yeah, fuck Spotify. And agree with everything Andy said too. Bandcamp seems to have a much better ethos, and couple that with YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, whatever the fuck else...why do bands feel the need to use Spotify?

They'll never get a penny from me anyway; I had to open an account just to listen to ye lazy pricks playlists 

[ochoill]

I had tried to stand up for it to some degree before, for the ease of finding music, playlists etc, wrote it off as the necessary evil and have had a paid account for about a year now.  But lately I've been weighing this up more and honestly, it was the playlist thread that sealed it - I can make playlists other ways that are significantly better.

I can't justify using it, even how it leads me to consume music is completely fucked.  I barely even use it for proper music discovery anymore and that was one of the main reasons I moved to it.  I own/owned about 3/4s of what I listen to on it anyway, either digitally or physically.  I'm going back to bandcamp, vlc, and physical, and if I'm that stuck for something else I'll use mixcloud and youtube.

[jobrok1]

Bandcamp is the best digital platform, in my opinion. If you like it, then throw a few shackles to the band or buy some merch.

Bar playlists, I never understood the appeal to Spotify.

[Eoin McLove]

Bandcamp is a great resource.

[ochoill]

I used bandcamp as main for everything for years - discovered the Hydra Head store on it around about 8 or 9 years ago and then fell into how lethal the whole site was for discovery - but only swapped to Spotify in the last year or so.  I'm going right back to it.  No site is better for music than it, in every sense.  I do wish there was a way of building some sort of even simple playlist on it - even just queueing songs in your library would be perfect - it would kill off anyone's need for spotify.

[Kurt Cocaine]

I used bandcamp as main for everything for years - discovered the Hydra Head store on it around about 8 or 9 years ago and then fell into how lethal the whole site was for discovery - but only swapped to Spotify in the last year or so.  I'm going right back to it.  No site is better for music than it, in every sense.  I do wish there was a way of building some sort of even simple playlist on it - even just queueing songs in your library would be perfect - it would kill off anyone's need for spotify.

Contact them with your suggestion. That's a great idea...

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

It's good the way it orients towards album listening though. While every other platform is feeding into the "the album is dead" narrative, Bandcamp encourages album creation and experiencing. Easy access lyrics and pages built around an aesthetic contribute to this also. It's really a resource for creators of music in that way, more than "just" for consumption.