Politicians in European Parliament want Spotify to increase pay for artists
Politicians in European Parliament are planning to help artists in their battle against Spotify as they continue to demand better pay from the streaming giant.
Iban García del Blanco, an MEP for the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, is planning to publish a report on the matter. “There is a loophole in our regulation. We need to fill it,” he recently said. García del Blanco believes his findings will be “intrusive in this market” and labelled the industry as “the most unbalanced sub-sector of the cultural sector at the moment.”
Additionally, Véronique Desbrosses, the general manager of GESAC, which represents organisations collecting royalties for artists in Europe, “the problem is that this music market is not regulated at all at the European level.” She additionally said streaming platforms have “become the main route to access music, and it cannibalised the other ways,” according to Politico.
Olivia Regnier, Spotify’s director of regulatory affairs in the European Union, said she was willing to have this conversation with the lawmakers. However, she also said, “from the premise that there is a regulatory gap to be filed, without asking what the problems are.”
News of the report follows a recent study which discovered 75% of artists lose money when they release music after paying for promotional costs. The research was carried out by Pirate.
For the study, they surveyed over 1,000 producers, live musicians, and artists who use their recording studios in the United States, and the United Kingdom. Their study discovered that “75% of music creators were out of pocket, and over half had taken a social media detox to cope.”
91% of the artists who participated in the survey promoted their music independently and didn’t use a label or manager. Meanwhile, 75% of those who pay to promote their music spend more than their revenue from streaming and sales.
Additionally, Spotify recently revealed they now have over half a billion people are using their platform on a monthly basis. However, Spotify also reported a net loss of $284 million (£232m) in the first quarter of 2023. Average revenue per user also fell by one per cent to $4.77 (£3.85).
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