Recent news revealed that Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek has been investing heavily in military tech companies, which adds another ethical layer to a platform already criticized for how little it pays musicians !

Spotify only pays artists about $3–5 per 1,000 streams, using a pro-rata model that directs most money toward major stars… By contrast, Qobuz (≈$18–20 per 1,000 streams) and Tidal (≈$12–13) pay far more fairly!

However Tidal is far from ethical. Most of its revenue is controlled by private investors and founders and small artists still earn very little…

More fair-minded platforms like Bandcamp, Resonate, Ampled, or SoundCloud’s fan-powered royalties prioritize musicians over investors.

With these more ethical alternatives available, why do we keep using Spotify?

  • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.caEnglish
    5·
    3 hours ago

    Well, shit!

    • Epic Games bought Bandcamp in March 2022.

    • In 2023, Bandcamp’s workers unionized under “Bandcamp United.”

    • In late 2023 (October), Epic sold Bandcamp to Songtradr, a music licensing company.

    • As part of that sale, many of the former Bandcamp employees were not offered positions by Songtradr, particularly those involved in union organizing.

    • Songtradr stated it would continue Bandcamp’s marketplace model and its “artist-first revenue share,” but declined to confirm whether certain features (e.g. user experience, Bandcamp Daily editorial) would remain unchanged.

    I had no idea. Union busting, now… What a great way to show you respect the people who generate your wealth.

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
      2·
      3 hours ago

      Thanks for sharing, this is a better write-up than I would’ve done.

      But yeah it really sucks because from the outside Bandcamp looks like a great “light touch” platform, but the truth is sadly much more cynical and anti-democratic.