Musicians and music fans alike have rallied together outside several of Spotify‘s worldwide officers protesting for pay payment to artists.
Organised by The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers, the protests come as the latest part of the union’s ‘Justice At Spotify’ campaign.
The protests happened at 1pm local time on Monday, 15th March at over 30 cities around the world, including at the streaming giant’s offices in both Sydney and Melbourne.
According to the union’s website, the demands of the campaign are as follows:
- Pay at least one cent per stream
- Adopt a user-centric payment model
- Make all closed-door contracts public
- Reveal existing payola, before ending it
- Credit all the work that goes into recordings
- “End legal battles intended to further impoverish artists”
“Spotify has long mistreated music workers, but the pandemic has put the exploitation into stark relief,” UMAW organiser and Downtown Boys member Mary Regalado said.
“The company has tripled in value during the pandemic, while failing to increase its payment rates to artists by even a fraction of a penny.
“Musicians all over the world are unemployed right now while the tech giants dominating the industry take in billions. Music work is labour, and we are asking to be paid fairly for that labour.”
The protests come a few months after the service controversially revealed that they had plans for an experiment where artists and labels can promote music in users’ recommendations, but have to accept a lower royalty rate.
