Aloe Blacc weighs in on Spotify debate with op-ed
While Taylor Swift’s 1989 is the first new LP to sell over 1 million copies in the US this year, her decision to pull her full catalogue from Spotify – and the ongoing debate between artists and streaming services – has incited an open letter from multi-Platinum soul artist Aloe Blacc.
Blacc, in an essay penned for tech website wired.com, said streaming services need to pay songwriters fairly: “The abhorrently low rates songwriters are paid by streaming services—enabled by outdated federal regulations— are yet another indication our work is being devalued in today’s marketplace.,” he wrote, linking to a 2013 post by US rights association ASCAP on Pandora’s purchase of radio station KXMZ-FM.
On Swift’s decision to pull her catalogue from Spotfy, Blacc said: “Just this week, Taylor Swift removed her music from Spotify—not because she doesn’t want you to stream her songs, but because she wants to be compensated fairly for her work. She wants Spotify to treat her work as though it has value. This problem ought to cause anyone who cares about the future of music—professionals and fans alike—to stand up and take note.”
Blacc called out internet radio service Pandora numerous times in the article; he mentioned his global #1 collaborative track with Avicii, Wake Me Up – a track which “was the most streamed song in Spotify history and the 13th most played song on Pandora since its release in 2013” – resulted in just US$12,359 in Pandora US royalties, which was of course, split between rights holders.
“Consider the fact that it takes roughly one million spins on Pandora for a songwriter to earn just $90 […] In return for co-writing a major hit song, I’ve earned less than $4,000 domestically from the largest digital music service.”
On August 8, submissions to the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice’s review of music licensing, and the consent decrees which bind the country’s two main collection societies, ASCAP and BMI closed.
The Antitrust Division is still examining the operation and effectiveness of the following:
- Whether content owners should be able to pull out of PROs (performing rights organisations) for certain types of rights, such as digital rights.
- Whether to replace the rate court, which is a federal court with all of the expense of a federal lawsuit, with mandatory arbitration.
- Whether PROs should be able to grant rights beyond performance rights.
- In general, whether the consent decrees are helping or harming competition.
“Updating the nation’s antiquated music licensing system will better serve the needs of not only music creators, like me, but businesses that use our music, consumers and the global marketplace for music,” Blacc wrote. “But the digital music services that see a financial advantage in maintaining the status quo are fighting hard to obstruct any meaningful reform.”
Interestingly, publishing and music services company Kobalt Music Group today announced its writers European royalties from Spotify eclipsed that of iTunes by 13% in the first quarter of 2014, with its founder and CEO Willard Ahdritz calling the shift as “an important new milestone in streaming.”
“[…] the music industry’s infrastructure is failing [songwriters], unable to efficiently account for the enormous volumes of data from digital transactions,” he said. “We are fixing those clogged pipes and, for Kobalt clients, the money is flowing.”