ALL THAT REMAINS singer Phil Labonte is not a big supporter of Spotify over their the fact that the streaming service’s pay rates are so low for artists.
Speaking with The Porcupine, Phil said that he’s “not a fan of Spotify personally,” and addressed the comments made by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in 2020 about artists needing to put out more material, which stated: “It’s quite interesting that while the overall pie is growing, and more and more people can partake in that pie, we tend to focus on a very limited set of artists.”
“Even today in our marketplace, there’s literally millions and millions of artists. What tends to be reported are the people that are unhappy, but we very rarely see anyone who’s talking about… In the entire existence [of Spotify] I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single artist saying ‘I’m happy with all the money I’m getting from streaming. Stating that publicly. In private they have done that many times, but in public they have no incentive to do it. But unequivocally, from the data, there are more and more artists that are able to live off streaming income in itself.”
“There is a narrative fallacy here, combined with the fact that, obviously, some artists that used to do well in the past may not do well in this future landscape, where you can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough. The artists today that are making it realize that it’s about creating a continuous engagement with their fans. It is about putting the work in, about the storytelling around the album, and about keeping a continuous dialogue with your fans.”
Labonte went on to say that although he’ll eventually be in a better position to release more music at a faster pace, he noted that many artists aren’t in that same position.
“It’s, like, you can be the person that came up with a creative, destructive force, and that’s fine, and that’s part of a free market and stuff, but when you’re a dick about it, you’re still a dick. If you’re just, like, ‘Well, you guys have gotta adapt to the market,’ it’s, like, look, there are a lot of artists that are in contracts that can’t just put out music every couple of days. Thankfully, I’m almost out of my contract — I’ve got one more record, and we’re recouped — so I’m in a uniquely good position; not ‘uniquely,’ but an exceedingly rare good position. Most artists aren’t.
“So when he is so dismissive of the effect his creation has on the music industry and then to glibly act as if $0.0007 cents for every spin is fair, I don’t think that’s… At the very least, it’s not someone that I wanna hang out with or someone that I wanna speak positively of. Maybe it’s not illegal, maybe it’s not immoral, but I’m kind of just, ‘Well, you’re kind of a pile, and I wouldn’t wanna be your friend.'”
Earlier this month, Spotify reported a 24% increase in revenue in the quarter to $2.7 billion as total monthly active users jumped 18% to 406 million. The company reported a net loss of $39 million.