Ari Herstand on Spotify royalty debate: ‘Reverse Robin Hood’
Artist advocate and musician Ari Herstand has jumped into the Spotify royalty debate which began on Hypebot earlier this week. “It’s disgraceful and slapped every emerging, independent artist in the face with this backwards policy,” wrote Herstand.
Ari Herstand on Spotify royalty debate: ‘Reverse Robin Hood’
On Thursday, Hypebot posted a piece by Disc Makers CEO Tony van Veen on why he believed the Spotify rule which eliminates payments on songs that receive less than 1000 streams cost artists $47 million.
When covering the Hypebot post and subsequent debate, Digital Music News added that, “while it probably doesn’t need saying, the situation is inherently beneficial for well-established acts and the major labels.”
A Spotify spokesperson reached out to rebut van Veen: “99.5% of all streams are of tracks that have at least 1,000 annual streams, and each of those tracks earn more under our policy.” Hypebot published Spotify’s full statement (page down) alongside the original article.
Now, Ari Herstand has jumped into the debate.
“I’d like to point out that according to Spotify’s math (.5% x $10B) in fact works out to be $50 million that those streams under 1,000 earned. So well done on the estimation Tony!,” wrote Herstand.
“I’m also so sick of the argument Spotify keeps repeating that these streams don’t earn enough for most distributor’s threshold to withdraw,” he continues. “HOWEVER, most artists don’t just release 1 song. And distributor’s pay on the artist’s catalog not just 1 song. Most artists release many songs. Add them up, it absolutely surpasses the withdrawal threshold. Many artists used to at least pay for the cost of distribution from their royalties (avg $50/yr), now they can’t.”
“Spotify should just tell it like it is,” Herstand concludes. “This was all Lucian Grainge. It was a UMG initiative and Spotify bent the knee and kissed the ring. It’s disgraceful and slapped every emerging, independent artist in the face with this backwards policy. Truly reverse Robin Hood.”
Read the original post along with Spotify’s response: Did the Spotify 1000 Stream Rule Cost Artists $47 Million?
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, a Berklee College Of Music professor and founder of the Skyline Artists Agency
