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Protest in front of the Spotify headquarters in Madrid: stop fighting artists
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Europa Press News / Getty Images
Music streaming is booming, 2020 was a record year, market leader Spotify is expanding.
The company recently announced that it intends to expand its global presence in 85 additional countries with the launch.
Artists hardly benefit from the streams of their songs, a large part of the portion from the pot in which advertising income and subscription fees flow goes to a few megastars.
Musicians have been criticizing this practice for years, and the pandemic has made their situation even worse.
This is why the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) launched the “Justice at Spotify” campaign in October.
More than 27,000 producers, technicians, labels, solo artists and bands have already signed the demand for transparency and fair payment.
On Monday, according to the UMAW, musicians in 31 cities worldwide protested in front of Spotify headquarters for fair payment and fair treatment.
For Spotify, 2020 was the most successful year since the company was founded.
The UMAW believes that it is generated without consideration for those without whom there would be no music streaming.
"Spotify has treated music workers badly for a long time, but the pandemic has put exploitation in a blatant light," protest organizer Mary Regalado was quoted as saying in a statement.
“The company tripled its value during the pandemic while failing to increase its artist payout rates by a fraction of a penny.
Music work is work and we demand to be paid fairly for this work. «
Fair, for you that means in concrete terms: at least one cent per song played.
So far, a title had to be played 263 times at an average of 0.0038 cents per stream in order to earn one dollar for the artist.
And UMAW does the math: A cup of coffee: 786 streams.
Average US Rent: 283,684 streams.
An hourly wage of 15 euros for a full position: 657,893 streams.
In addition to fair payment, UMAW demands more transparency in the company's finances and models, in contracts with record companies.
And an end to the legal dispute against female artists, as Spotify and other streaming giants have taken to a US court against the gradual increase in streaming fees for rights holders decided by the Copyright Royalty Board.
"Spotify should fight for the artists who built it instead of further undermining our economic well-being," it says.
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