The metal community has come together and slammed the Spotify CEO Daniel Ek after his comments on new music.
Ek told Music Ally:
“Even today on our marketplace, there’s literally millions and millions of artists. What tends to be reported are the people that are unhappy, but we very rarely see anyone who’s talking about… In the entire existence [of Spotify], I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single artist saying, ‘I’m happy with all the money I’m getting from streaming,’ stating that publicly. In private, they have done that many times, but in public, they have no incentive to do it. But unequivocally, from the data, there are more and more artists that are able to live off streaming income in itself.
“There is a narrative fallacy here, combined with the fact that, obviously, some artists that used to do well in the past may not do well in this future landscape, where you can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough,” he continued.
This lead to massive protests online by musicians and fans with some of the big names slamming him hard.
Here are the comments from Mike Portnoy, Dee Snider & Sebastian Bach:
Mike:
“What a greedy little b*tch…it’s bad enough that he’s worth BILLIONS based on stealing and giving away other musician’s music…but now he’s suggesting we need to make MORE music for HIM to make more money!!! F-@Spotify and F-@eldsjal
“I have 8 full album releases in 2020 & will make PEANUTS on them (if anything at all…) So his theory of artists needing to make MORE music to succeed is sh*t! F-@eldsjal & F-@Spotify! Support THE ARTISTS DIRECTLY if you want them to be able to continue to make music…”
Dee Snider chimed in:
“While you (the listener) benefit & enjoy Spotify, it’s part of what’s killing a major income stream for artist/creators,”
“The amount of artists ‘rich enough’ to withstand this loss are about .0001%. Daniel Ek‘s solution is for us to write & record more on our dime?! F*ck him!”
Sebastian Bach said:
“When this guy puts out an album himself I will listen to him tell me about my albums.”