Spotify’s Irish Launch: Artists Respond

While causing great excitement among music fans, artists seem nonplussed about the possible impact of Spotify’s Irish launch last week.

A Swedish company that has over 15 million users worldwide, Spotify as a basic streaming service is free, but carries both banner and radio-style ads. There are also two monthly subscription packages – no ads/computer-only and no ads/all mobile devices – which cost €4.99 and €9.99 respectively.
With its vast library of music Spotify has been hailed as a boon for consumers, but criticised for what are seen as low artist royalty payments.
Talking to Hot Press as part of our Christmas Summit, Django Django’s Derry-born lead singer and guitarist Vinny Neff remains among the unconvinced.
“I don’t have Spotify,” he says. “It’s not really a way that I want to consume music. You’re gaining exposure being on there, but they’re not paying what seems like a fair rate for what you’re giving them. At some stage people putting music out might all cotton on and say, ‘What are we doing here?’ It seems like Spotify are making a tonne and not handing it down.”
In fact the company has yet to deliver profits. In 2011 Spotify made losses of $59m on revenues of $244m, with industry forecasts indicating that revenues for 2012 will reach $500m.
“Don’t get me wrong,” the Django Django man adds, “I’m all for new technology and download a lot of music from iTunes, but if somebody massive like Lady Gaga’s getting only a few grand a year from Spotify, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of us!”
Neff is referring to the claim that in 2010 Lady Gaga earned a mere $167 from one million plays of ‘Poker Face’ and similarly modest amounts from other Born This Way tracks. On the indie front, Galaxie 500’s three songwriters revealed this month that the 5,960 times their ‘Tugboat’ single was streamed on Spotify earned them 35¢ each. By their reckoning, 47,000 plays equates to the sale of one full-price album.
Vincent Neff’s concerns about Spotify are shared by his fellow Summit participant Laura Sheeran.
“I heard that in order to make the minimum wage from streams you have to be streaming as much as Prince,” she proffers. “There are seven of us here and none of us seems to know how it works in terms of royalties.”
Le Galaxie’s Mick Pope admits that, from an artist’s perspective, he has no idea what Spotify’s terms and conditions are.
“Are we all on it?” he asks. “Friends of mine who managed to tap into Spotify before it officially launched here say it’s great for finding tunes and sticking on at parties, but it’s almost infinitesimal what you get paid per play.”
Somebody who most definitely is on Spotify is platimum-selling Irish hip hopper Maverick Sabre.
“Spotify is just one in a long line of internet creations that’s de-humanising music – the emphasis is on computers rather than people,” he ventures. “That’s the world we live in though. It’s no better or worse than iTunes or Shazam or any of the other download/streaming services. If people really like it, they’ll still go out and buy it. Just look at Adele and Lana Del Rey.”

For a full dissection of the musical year that is 2012, see the Hot Press Christmas Summit on page 42.