“There are better options: buy music from your favourite artist on Bandcamp, or support smaller labels.
Ultimately, O’Brien thinks it’s time to challenge monopolistic streaming services, and to imagine a different model for music distribution - one in which artists have more autonomy. It's like trading the devil you know for the devil you don't know.” She thinks Young’s proposed solution of switching to Apple Music or Amazon is also problematic: “All of these services are so broad, you're going to find equally, as you know, controversial content somewhere else. Despite the calls, O’Brien points out that the boycott didn’t really make a splash in the media. Last year, a number of artists encouraged music fans to boycott Spotify after the company’s CEO Daniel Ek invested $14 million in a European startup that manufactures military artificial-intelligence software.
“It makes me wish Neil Young could have called out the many issues at Spotify, not just whose content they distribute, but also how they're compensating artists and how they're using their money.” “The business model is totally exploitive,” she said. Joe” framing of the controversy glosses over other issues with the company. “Given how streaming services like Spotify and Apple and Amazon have monopolized the distribution of music, conflicts like this are going to happen all the time, whether it's involves a podcaster hosting people with anti-vax sentiments or something else down the road,” she explained. She holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Toronto and also helped score several plays and films, including Sook-Yin Lee’s feature film “ Octavio is Dead!”Īs an admirer of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell - both of whom have a long history of supporting political causes - O’Brien says she supports their right to “go out on a limb and make an ultimatum to make their thoughts known.” But she’s unsure if deplatforming Joe Rogan is anything more than a short-term solution to a much larger problem. Spotify did not respond to any specific requests for comment.Īlia O'Brien is a Toronto singer and flautist who plays in the metal band Blood Ceremony and the psychedelic collective known as Badge Époque Ensemble. The Star reached out to four Canadian musicians to weigh in on the Young-Rogan-Spotify battle and to comment on the current state of music streaming. The portal claims that Spotify generates more money for rights holders than any other streaming service. Last year, Spotify launched Loud & Clear, a web portal that presents data on how Spotify streams are determined and paid out. The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers, which represents thousands of music workers fighting for a fairer music industry, applauded Young’s decision to pull his music, and released a list of demands for Spotify, including demands to pay artists at least one cent per stream, to adopt a user-centric payment model, to make all closed-door contracts public and more. The outrage comes also in reaction to the $100 million Spotify dished out for exclusive rights to the massively popular “Joe Rogan Experience,” while refusing to adjust its payment scale for musicians.
0 kommentar(er)
