After a fiscally draining 2023, Spotify is days away from a controversial change to its royalty payment system that aims to save the streaming company money. As independent artists and labels speak out, rock star and syndicated radio personality Dee Snider says he’s not gonna take it.
As of January 1, all tracks on Spotify must achieve a minimum of 1000 streams within a year to qualify for royalties. CEO Daniel Ek is also targeting distributors and labels for delivering content responsible for fraudulent streams, while white noise tracks will have even tougher royalty qualifications compared to music tracks.
The Twisted Sister frontman and House of Hair host was recently interviewed by Canadian radio presenter and podcaster Jeremy White, and didn’t hold back on his thoughts about Ek’s contributions to music. “That guy from Spotify. I wanna tell you, he should be taken out and shot. When he heard that artists were complaining about how little we get paid, his response was ‘make more music.’ Like we’re producing cans of Coke!” exclaimed Snider.
Ek has been at the center of the streaming payment debate ever since a 2020 interview where he said, “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. The artists today that are making it realise that it’s about creating a continuous engagement with their fans. It is about putting the work in, about the storytelling around the album, and about keeping a continuous dialogue with your fans.”
Calling Ek’s attitude “insulting and belittling,” Dee Snider highlighted how Spotify and streaming’s business strategies are hampering the music community’s growth, and how the days of rockers filling stadiums might be behind us in thirty years.
