I just recently (today) was made aware by YLE News in Finland, that I have been paying the bills of so called musicians, which I wouldn't get caught dead listening. That needs to stop! I have been using Premium for 7 years straight now and have an taste of somewhat non mainstream music. Genres like Hip Hop (or at least that what majority of people call's Hip Hop), and mainstream Pop are absolute no no music styles for me, due to the severe lack of depth in them - it's a matter of taste and I have the right to state my opinion accordingly.
And all that time I have had the impression that I have been supporting the music made by the artists and bands from the genres which I listen to, mainly Alternative music, Punk, Metal, Industrial, Rock in it's dirty forms, different Techno styles etc. But instead Spotify has poured my monthly payments in the hands of different no tallent pop and hip hop personators. That is unacceptable!
Look. It's very simple. If I would like to support those people in question, I would just stop using my brain and go buy their CD's or MP3's. But I don't want to support them, so I don't buy their material. If I would like to eat at Mcdonalds, I would go and eat at Mcdonalds. But I want to eat at home, or in a place with more ethical or individual approach to food.
Point is, that Spotify needs to change the model the company is using for paying the royalty fees for the artists. Pro rata model is not working as I as an consumer would like it to work for the benefit of the artists which I would like to support. There are for example over 1,8 million Spotify users in Finland alone, and even if the majority of the Premium subscribers like to listen material from people like Cheek, there still are bound to be thousands of Premium subscribers, who have the same type of acquired taste as I have. So naturally we assume that the sum of our payments would go in the source, where we get our days saved, not ruined.
Only 0,4 % out of all the music on Spotify are the big radio play hits which masses want to listen, and it's inherently not fair that the 0,4 % in question still keeps scooping up most of the profits made with Spotify after pooling up for example the Premium subscriber payments. Also, instead of having a dialogue with the music industry about the payments in question, Spotify should also consider what would their subscribers like to do with the money we pay to you each month. Do like Deezer is doing and try out different types of payment systems, I don't want to stop using Spotify and give up a years worth of playlists because I deem your practice to be unfair. Paying for my favourite artists only 0,0035 € per listening time out of all of the listening times during sometimes in a single day is just wrong.
Hope you see it necessary to change the model of your business practice. It's good that you opened up the vail of secrecy around it, but now it's time to let some fresh air flow in from that opening.
Staff / Moderator/ 2 years ago in Social & Random