Justice at Spotify Campaign Demands Better Deal for Artists

Streaming music might now be the most popular way of consuming the sounds you know and love. But it has long been contested by the artists themselves, who feel short changed. The main gripe is that the vast sums of money Spotify collects from its various subscription charges is never reasonably shared with the people creating the content. And when it is, it is often the larger, more successful artists who get a lion’s share.

The United Musicians and Allied Workers Union have joined forced in an attempt to right that wrong. Together, they’ve launched the ‘Justice at Spotify’ campaign. It calls for Spotify to raise the streaming royalty to one cent per stream and adopt a user-centric payment model. It further calls for transparency on all closed-door contracts.

Fair Pay

Ultimately, the unions are asking Spotify to listen up and pay artists more fairly.

Campaign organisers explained: “One of Spotify’s core goals is to give a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art. Yet, to generate a single dollar on the platform, a song needs to be streamed 263 times. To put that in perspective, it would take 786 streams to generate enough revenue to buy an average cup of coffee. To pay the median American monthly rent ($1,078) an artist needs to generate 283,684 recurring streams monthly. And to earn $15/hr each month working full time, it would take 657,895 streams per band member.

“The company behind the streaming platform continues to accrue value, yet music workers everywhere see little more than pennies in compensation for the work they make.”

Spotify could have trouble on their hands if nothing changes because almost 24,000 artists have already signed the unions’ petition. As time goes by, more and more fans are also realising how unfair the system is and are stepping away to use more egalitarian platforms like Mixcloud.

Artists can sign the Justice at Spotify petition here.

Main image: Freepix/wayhomestudio