Musicians say streaming doesn t pay. Can the industry change?
12 minutes to read
By: Ben Sisario
Services like Spotify and Apple Music pulled the business back from the brink. But artists say they can t make a living. And their complaints are getting louder. When the pandemic hit last year, British singer-songwriter Nadine Shah saw her income dry up in an instant. The concert bookings that sustained her vanished and, at age 34, she moved back in with her parents on the northeast coast of England. I was financially crippled, Shah said in an interview.
Like musicians everywhere who were stuck off the road, staring into the abyss of their bank accounts, Shah whose dark alto and eclectic songs have brought her critical acclaim and a niche following began to examine her livelihood as an artist. Money from the streams of her songs on services like Spotify and Apple Music was practically nonexistent, she said, adding up to just a few pounds here and there. S
Ben Sisario, The New York Times
Published: 09 May 2021 12:49 PM BdST
Updated: 09 May 2021 12:49 PM BdST Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music pulled the business back from the brink. But artists say they can’t make a living. And their complaints are getting louder. (Jon Han/The New York Times)
When the pandemic hit last year, British singer-songwriter Nadine Shah saw her income dry up in an instant. The concert bookings that sustained her vanished and, at age 34, she moved back in with her parents on the northeast coast of England. );
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“I was financially crippled,” Shah said in an interview.
Like musicians everywhere who were stuck off the road, staring into the abyss of their bank accounts, Shah whose dark alto and eclectic songs have brought her critical acclaim and a niche following began to examine her livelihood as an artist. Money from the streams of her songs on services like Spotify and Apple Music was practically nonexistent, she said,
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Today, Access Now, Fight for the Future, Union of Musicians and Allied Workers, and a coalition of over 180 musicians and human rights organizations from around the world sent a letter to Spotify calling on the company to make a
public commitment to never use, license, sell, or monetize its new
Spotify claims that the technology can detect, among other things, “emotional state, gender, age, or accent” to recommend music. This technology is dangerous, a violation of privacy and other human rights, and should not be implemented by Spotify or any other company.
On April 2, 2021, Access Now sent a letter to Spotify calling on the company to abandon the technology in the patent. On April 15, 2021, Spotify replied to Access Now’s letter, stating that the company “has never implemented the technology described in the patent in any of our products and we have no plans to do so.”
Wednesday, 5 May 2021, 5:42 am
May 4, 2021 Today, Access Now, Fight
for the Future, Union of Musicians and Allied Workers, and a
coalition of over 180 musicians and human rights
organizations from around the world sent a
letter to Spotify calling on the company to make a
public commitment to never use, license, sell, or
monetize its new
Spotify claims that
the technology can
detect, among other things, “emotional state, gender,
age, or accent” to recommend music. This technology is
dangerous, a violation of privacy and other human rights,
and should not be implemented by Spotify or any other
company.
On April 2, 2021, Access Now sent a