Vince Staples has used an appearance at SXSW to bite the hand that feeds him (or, you know, doesn’t feed him). During his performance at the Texan festival, the Long Beach rapper reportedly had a mad dig at Spotify inside its own god damn house.
As the The Austin-American Statesman reports, during his Spotify House showcase, the rapper quipped: “Shoutout to Spotify. Thank you for giving me this check to make up for what you’ve done to me and all my musical friends.”
Later, he told the crowd: “Listen to your favourite album 1,000, 2,000 times so everybody can get an album sale.”
You may be familiar with the notion that it’s virtually impossible for the vast majority of artists to make enough money to even stick in one of those chocolate factory claw machine things outside their local K-Mart through music streaming services like Spotify.
The issue prompted a recent satirical exposé on the ABC series DAFUQ, which saw a bunch of well known Aussie musos embark on a crimewave after a failed attempt to live off Spotify royalties.
Meanwhile, an Aussie metal band has been experimenting (successfully) with a new scheme to fund their music careers in the age of illegal downloads and music streaming.
Through a new fan-funded membership program called Patreon, Ne Obliviscaris have so far raised over $100K a year to keep them on the road.
Put that in your playlist and stream it, Spotify.
Watch: Vince Staples – Lift Me Up
