Bjork has been doing press interviews to promote today’s livestream of her new Apple TV+ concert film “Cornucopia,” but a comment she made about Spotify during an interview with the Swedish outlet Dagens Nyheter is grabbing headlines on Friday: “Spotify is probably the worst thing that has happened to musicians.”
She made the comment when discussing her preference for creating new music over touring. “The live part is, and always will be, a big part of what I do,” she said, in a translation from Swedish published in NME. “But I’m lucky because I no longer have to raise money on touring, which younger musicians are often forced to do.
“In that respect,” she continued, “Spotify is probably the worst thing that has happened to musicians. The streaming culture has changed an entire society and an entire generation of artists.”
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To be fair, her comment was really aimed at the streaming economy, which on the one hand saved a music business that for more than a dozen years had been ravaged by illegal downloading — generating nothing for artists and rights-holders like labels and music publishers — but on the other pays musicians and especially songwriters a fraction percentage of what they earn from the sale of physical product like vinyl and CDs: Streaming services roughly pay between $.003 and $.005 per stream, which is paid directly to the rights-holders (usually labels and publishers) who then pay the artist or songwriter and other stakeholders.
Not surprisingly, those meager payments mean that only the very top-streamed artists — usually superstars — are able to make significant income from streaming, which is why musicians have come to rely on touring, merchandise sales and brand partnerships for their livelihood.
However, even that model has faltered in recent years, as the post-pandemic glow has faded from the live-music industry and, in a tougher economy, many tours, even by major stars, have met with lower ticket sales than hoped — a truly existential crisis, as it leaves many musicians with basically no way to make a living while music companies and especially streaming services are the primary beneficiaries — Forbes estimates Spotify CEO and cofounder Daniel Ek’s net worth at $7.4 billion.
Clearly, the streaming economy is long overdue for a reimagining.