News October 21, 2018

Run The Jewels’ El-P says Spotify doesn’t protect artists against fraud

Image: Richard Bord/Getty Images

Have you ever looked up one of your favourite artists on Spotify, only to discover a completely different musician under that name? It’s actually quite a common occurrence, and now US rapper El-P has hit out at the streaming giant, saying the service doesn’t do enough to protect artists against fraud.

Just yesterday, an El-P fan sent the rapper a message on Twitter asking him if he was aware that a completely unrelated artist had uploaded music under the El-P name. What followed was a series of Tweets which saw the rapper admitting this is not only a sore point for him, but a reason for his dislike of Spotify.

“No matter how many times I pay my lawyer to take them down, Spotify just doesn’t care enough to not let other people upload songs to my page or my albums that I own to theirs,” El-P began. “That’s the type of personal touch they’ve brought to the industry. $250 every time.”

“So not only do we get payed a pittance on Spotify but we actually have to pay hundreds a month simply to regulate what gets sold in our name. I’m tired of being nice about it, the world is descending in to fascism, I’ll be damned if I care about ruffling feathers at Spotify.”

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“Despite all my money spent simply correcting the fact that Spotify lets people upload music in my name that aren’t me and that I regularly have to find and take down my own intellectual property from other peoples pages, I’m expected to pay monthly for the service,” he continued.

“For those that don’t know, the rules Spotify have set forth are as follows: if someone uploads music in your name to your page or your music to theirs fraudulently your only recourse is to issue a take down by a lawyer. Spotify doesn’t help. This happens to me almost monthly.”

While some of El-P’s fans suggested that Spotify should have a number of algorithms or systems involved to ensure such a thing doesn’t continue to happen, the rapper ensured his followers that he’s not against the streaming service, just the fact they apparently allow this to happen.

“I’m not saying don’t use Spotify to hear my music. It’s a great app for listeners. I put it up there for that reason,” El-P concluded. “The issue I have is not that. It’s that I find it infuriating that we regularly have to pay money to correct something that we shouldn’t have to.”

Spotify are yet to respond to El-P’s claims.