Spaldy
Ancient Mariner
After all the recent controversy around Neil Young vs Joe Rogan I was hoping to gauge opinion on this.
I think the media (as usual) have built this up into something that it wasn't. Young merely asked for his music to be removed over his objection to Rogan's platform. He never gave Spotify an ultimatum. If you know Neil Young's history you'll know that he suffered from Polio as a kid before there were vaccines available so it's not surprising that he takes umbrage that Spotify are paying $100m/pa to a doofus podcaster well known for spreading anti-vax conspiracy theories.
It probably makes things worse that Spotify don't pay nearly enough to even the biggest artists on there so it must be insulting knowing how much they value a podcast over the music that built the platform. To be clear, no artist on Spotify earns $100m a year.
More artists are joining him in boycotting the platform and their market value has dropped over $2bn this week so it's having an effect. I'm not sure if any of the younger artist will join them though. And I highly doubt that Maiden will take a political stance like this, especially if the rumours about Steve's anti-vaxxing are true.
What tipped the barrel for me was finding out that the Spotify CEO buys shares in the arms industry. I cancelled my subscription yesterday and have switched to Tidal who, according to my research, pay their artists a lot more and also have far better audio quality. Not that I'm advocating streaming as an end-all. I still believe that more people should purchase music including Vinyl and CD's. I've also seen increased support for sites like Bandcamp over the past few days.
Do I think there will be a push back against music streaming? Unlikely, it's still the most convenient way to hear your favourite albums but I also think it's turned the art more into a commodity. The idea of unlimited choice is a lie. Despite having every piece of recorded music for just £10/month (and I believe there's something inherently wrong with this) most people end up just playing their favourite albums and little else.
Which makes you ask "why not just buy those albums and quit streaming altogether?"
Any thoughts?
I think the media (as usual) have built this up into something that it wasn't. Young merely asked for his music to be removed over his objection to Rogan's platform. He never gave Spotify an ultimatum. If you know Neil Young's history you'll know that he suffered from Polio as a kid before there were vaccines available so it's not surprising that he takes umbrage that Spotify are paying $100m/pa to a doofus podcaster well known for spreading anti-vax conspiracy theories.
It probably makes things worse that Spotify don't pay nearly enough to even the biggest artists on there so it must be insulting knowing how much they value a podcast over the music that built the platform. To be clear, no artist on Spotify earns $100m a year.
More artists are joining him in boycotting the platform and their market value has dropped over $2bn this week so it's having an effect. I'm not sure if any of the younger artist will join them though. And I highly doubt that Maiden will take a political stance like this, especially if the rumours about Steve's anti-vaxxing are true.
What tipped the barrel for me was finding out that the Spotify CEO buys shares in the arms industry. I cancelled my subscription yesterday and have switched to Tidal who, according to my research, pay their artists a lot more and also have far better audio quality. Not that I'm advocating streaming as an end-all. I still believe that more people should purchase music including Vinyl and CD's. I've also seen increased support for sites like Bandcamp over the past few days.
Do I think there will be a push back against music streaming? Unlikely, it's still the most convenient way to hear your favourite albums but I also think it's turned the art more into a commodity. The idea of unlimited choice is a lie. Despite having every piece of recorded music for just £10/month (and I believe there's something inherently wrong with this) most people end up just playing their favourite albums and little else.
Which makes you ask "why not just buy those albums and quit streaming altogether?"
Any thoughts?