Daniel Ek stepping down changes nothing for artists boycotting Spotify

Spotify for many years turned out to be the goal of the wrath of artists for many reasons: Poor sound qualityIN horrible Paymentsgift Joe Rogan Millions of dollars … the list can be continued. But recently, it was the general director and founder of Daniel ECA for extracurricular activities, which was the cause of horror. Over the past few months financing German protective company Helsing through its investments Prima Materia was the last straw for many actions, including the TNT hotline, Massive attackIN Years of you! Black EmperorIN DeerhoofAnd moreField

Then, on Tuesday, Ek announced that it would Go down As a general director. Neither EK nor Spotify gave any signs that the growing span over his Lands to the war was an incentive behind a solution. But if the company hoped that the side of the EK replacement product as the general director would be to stop the flow of artists leaving the platform, I have bad news.

Grave We turned to a number of artists and labels who deleted their music from Spotify, and this is not like that any of them plans to change their melody in the near future. This is partly due to the fact that the change in the name EK is a little more than it. He will remain the executive chairman and even in the announcement of Gustav Sederstrom and Alex Norstrem will be called the new EK-directors at once Dress their authoritySaying: “Gustav and Alex will continue to inform me … I will be more in my hands than some of my American peers who have the title of chairman.” When he was asked about explanations about how EK will change, Spotify refused to comment.

So EK can transmit some Responsibility for daily activities, but it will still have a significant impact on the company's decisions. Jeremy Liord-Koch, who releases music called Jeremy Blake and places the YouTube channel Red means recordingHe shot his music in July. He said Grave That this hall of meetings shuffs “does not change anything.” He quickly indicated that “the executive chairman is a key leadership that leads the board of directors, and also occupies an active, strategic and often practical role in the daily business and the executive leadership of the company.”

Will Anderson from the TNT hot line had a similar conclusion, telling Grave“By their own admission of the company, nothing will change. Their statement says that the step formalizes how Spotify has been working successfully since 2023. ” For me, it sounds as if the company knows about changing public moods and trying to publish a small adjustment of the name for its general director to return some kind of will before the things of the snow stake from control.

Colin Tolvert, label manager for Kalahari -culture, which pulled all his catalog From Spotify in June was also inaction. “We remain attentive to events, but in accordance with this, this is no more than a control trick based on optics,” he said Grave. “Not quite a pure sheet we hope for. Most likely, he liberates him to pursue his more controversial efforts. “

The fact that Anderson, Liard-Koch and others made it clear that it was never just Daniel Ek. Anderson says: “Our problems with this particular stream platform go far beyond the framework of one reptile.” Its “financing AI Battle Tech” to use the words of the drummer Deerhoof of Greg Saunier was simply the last in a number of problems. Satomi Matsuzaki, the vocalist of Deerhoof, was unequivocal in the statement Grave:

“We will not return to Spotify if they do not begin to treat every artist with respect and pay them a sufficient amount. They must stop making money using artificial intellect fraud. Artists are trying their best to survive. SPOTIM payment in the amount of $ 0.003 for the stream will not even give us a Sodov Bank. Their system will not change.

Spotify payments have long been the biggest problem for artists, and, unchanged, it is unlikely that this recent outcome will slow down. Spotify has one of The lowest indicators for stream In the industry. Majority estimates place This between $ 0.003 and $ 0.005 in recent years. (Although Spotify's Oppessional method The calculations of the ruler make it difficult for sure Tom York And Taylor Swift In the past, they pulled out their music from the service, although both artists ultimately returned. And for little artists, those whose tracks receive less than 1000 flows The payment is 0 dollars per year. The company's payments are so low that it attracted attention European parliament And Congress of the United StatesField

The problem goes beyond just the underestimation of artists. In 2024, the company changed its premium plan to enable audiobooks, which allowed it to suppress royalties on Supervoting audiobooks With music. With a significantly larger number of hours of content to divide the income from the subscription between, Royalti payments fell by $ 150 millionWhile Spotify's income continued Climb abruptlyThe clogged tactics that the company uses to artificial suppression of bets on the fee was even a goal bipartisan call for investigation In June. Republicans and democrats in the Senate, according to the visible, agree that Spotify got out of control.

Liord-Koch considers this assessment of profit over art as a final problem. “Spotify will have to make efforts in Herculean in order to abandon many destructive elections that they have introduced to their platform for many years. I do not see this with a public company that intends to profit for shareholders, ”he said.

Some artists have proved that although it may not always be easy, you can find Success without SpotifyJoanna News Pole never put her music on Spotify, calling it a “villainous cabin” in an interview with Los Angeles TimesField and Cindy Lee made herself Critical dear With records PitchFork No. 1 2024, Diamond anniversaryBut the album is not available on streaming platforms.

Between the proliferation BackupAssociation p controversial figuresAnd the terrible rates of the royalties, Spotify has many other baggage outside Daniel Ec investments in military companies. Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart said Anthony Fantano The fact that “we are away from Spotify will not have any real financial impact for them. This is really more connected with our conscience. ” But Anderson was a little more optimistic about the ability of artists to make changes: “It seems that Spotify will suffer, and they should be.”