Songwriters mock low streaming royalty rates in new video
One of the tragedies of the streaming age is that even hit songwriters are finding it hard to earn a living in the age of streaming.
The rates paid by streaming are already low and often divided between 3-6 songwriters (including the recording artist, even though they contributed nothing to the song) before the publisher takes their cut.
A group of very successful songwriters decided to express their displeasure using the “Of course!” format made popular on TikTok.
Bonnie McKee (whose work includes Katy Perry and Britney Spears) is joined by J Hart (Cher, Troye Sivan), Tayla Parx (Ariana Grande, Panic at the Disco), Autumn Rowe (Jon Batiste), Jax (Weezer, Big Freedia) Lauren Christy (Dua Lipa, Avril Lavigne), Jesse Saint John (Lizzo, Camila Cabello) and Michelle Lewis (Cher and the head of the Songwriters of North America) and others.
The video begins, “We’re songwriters – of course, you know all the words to the songs we wrote, and you have no idea who we are,” and the sad irony of this unfair situation builds from there.
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.
