What's your take on the new Spotify scandal?
*WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON SPOTIFY?*
This past week, Spotify made the news again, and again for something not so great. My take on this is tripartite: 1. Misinformation is not something anyone should make money from. It can exist wherever else and still be accessible to those who are fans, so this is NOT about free speech. Private companies can do pretty much whatever they want (a discussion for another day), but it would be nice if they - especially those with the most power & influence - show a backbone & take a stance that isn't about making more money. NOT on opinions or differences in ideology, but on actual misrepresentation of facts that might be harmful. It's one of the worst kinds of propaganda. 2. All streaming services suck to some degree - some much more than others. Your pick will always be the lesser of several evils. Other than the above, the reasons why Spotify sucks hardest are: A. They have one of the worst artist royalty rates of ALL streaming services. Hell, even Napster - which yes still exists - pays better than Spotify. B. Their compression algorithm generates one of the worst sound qualities for music anywhere. 3. I am Spotify user. It's my primary source for music listening. Music from my three officially released artists (REC, NICK, The Drop) will remain on Spotify. My podcast (MUSIC is not a GENRE) is distributed everywhere through a Spotify subsidiary. This may all change at some point. And while I agree with the protest artists like Neil Young & Joni Mitchell are enacting, most artists make next to nothing, and don't have the luxury of limiting their reach. Until that changes for my music & podcasts, I will continue to advocate for better payouts, better sound, and more integrity.
I'd love to hear your take on any of this. AND as this week is Bandcamp Friday week, I'd also love for you to bypass ALL THE STREAMING services and go straight to REC's source:
Thank you!
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