The coronavirus pandemic has affected the music industry in a huge way. With pretty much every live show, venue, and festival being cancelled or postponed, heaps of musicians around the globe are stuck for gigs.
Musicians are now turning to Spotify, asking that the company triples its royalty rates following the outbreak.
Musicians without gigs are turning to Spotify, asking for triple the current royalty rates following the coronavirus outbreak.
Musician, Evan Greer posted an online petition titled “Tell Spotify to stop exploiting musicians during the COVID 19 outbreak” asking Spotify to permanently triple their royalties and donate money to Sweet Relief; a charity based in California that provides aid in finance and mental health for musicians. Greer asked Spotify to donate $50,000 USD due to the coronavirus outbreak.
A spokesperson for Spotify stated,
“There’s no question this is a challenging time for our creator community and we are working to assist them through MusiCares’ Covid-19 relief fund to provide much needed assistance.”
They further added that they would be providing a portion of its ad inventory available for charities and the government to provide safety information during the coronavirus pandemic. Spotify has furthered this by contributing to the CDC Foundation emergency response fund and and WHO’s COVID-19 solidarity response fund.
Spotify has not revealed their rates for artists, though it has been calculated to be about $0.00318 USD per stream. Musicians such as Zoe Keating have revealed their statements in the past, proving that the rates have definitely lowered over the years.
Spotify streaming numbers have dropped since the pandemic. In Italy, the figures have dropped a whopping 23% from the 3rd of March to the 17th of March.
