Billie Marten slams capitalist music industry: “We’re all paying Taylor Swift”
Folk singer-songwriter Billie Marten has slammed the music industry’s current structure, detailing financial issues amid a “capitalist” streaming culture.
Billie Marten has just dropped her fifth studio album, Dog Eared, to high critical praise. Speaking to The Independent as part of her promotion for the new release, Marten openly discussed how the music industry paradoxically does not support artists.
“Mostly, artists are in financial ruin no matter how successful they appear to be,” Marten stated boldly. “I’ve worked the hardest and the longest and I am the most busy I’ve ever been – and I am not doing great.”
This is partly due to an unfair streaming structure. “There’s too much music and there are too many famous people,” Marten commented, in light of Spotify’s royalty structure that rewards artists based on streaming numbers. “Less money is going to mid-level and low-level artists. It’s a capitalist mentality, essentially, and we’re all paying Taylor Swift.”
She also described how it is often hard to garner serious discussion of the issue, as most see the job as “musician” compensation enough. Often, musicians are more passionate about making music than money, aware of how lucky they are in a competitive market.
Despite her grievances, she also stated adamantly that she was not complaining. Instead, she added, “I’m speaking for all of us who have made peace with it, because we’re nice people who just want to make music. But should we make peace with it? And how do we change it?”
Dog Eared is awash with full-bodied instrumentation that departs from Marten’s usual voice-and-guitar approach. She also explained this in the interview: “I feel like music has become a little bit too easy, a little bit too soft, or it’s incredibly jarring post-punk. There’s nothing in between – so I was asking myself and others for some musical interest.”
In a four-star review of her 2023 album, Drop Cherries, Far Out wrote, “There might not be anything new under the sun, but that simplifies the fact that Marten is one of the most consistently great artists of the modern day. By this point, when you get a new Billie Marten album, you know that you’re going to get an album chock-full of relaxed folk, introspective lyrics, and top-shelf composition. There aren’t many artists that you can rely on year in and year out for great material, but Marten should be counted among the best of them.”
Dog Eared is available to stream now.
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