Twisted Sister‘s Dee Snider has hit out at Spotify, suggesting CEO Daniel Ek “should be taken out and shot” for unfairly compensating artists.
The streaming platform has frequently come under fire for the low rates at which it pays artists, which has contributed to many artists struggling to make enough money directly from their music. Recently, Spotify controversially changed its royalty streaming threshold of 1000 plays before songs are able to generate royalties.
According to Spotify data, there are around 100million songs on the service, yet only around 37.5million meet the new requirements to generate revenue.
Snyder’s criticism for the platform and its CEO, who he didn’t refer to by name, came during an interview with the YouTube podcast The Jeremy White Show.
“That guy from Spotify, I wanna tell you, he should be taken out and shot,” Snider said (via Consequence of Sound), presumably referring to Ek. “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. Just [increase] the production. [It’s] insulting and belittling.”
Snider’s initial criticism was referring to a widely circulated 2020 interview in which Ek said that “you can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough.”
Snyder went on to reveal his primary source of income from music comes from licensing, mostly from Twisted Sister’s huge hit ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’, and he makes very little from Spotify streams.
“The licensing is the last godsend, the last oasis where you can actually make some money,” he said. “Steven Spielberg chooses ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ for the finale of Ready Player One. Thank you, God, ’cause I’m not getting anything from Spotify.”
Weird Al Yankovic also took aim at the platform in his #SpotifyWrapped artist video. “It’s my understanding that I had over 80 million streams on Spotify this year so, if I’m doing the math right, that means I earned $12. Enough to get myself a nice sandwich at a restaurant,” he said.
Spotify recently pulled out of two music festivals in France after the country changed its tax laws in relation to streaming services, whereby streaming services would pay tax on 1.2 per cent of their turnover.
In response, Spotify have argued for a voluntary contribution instead of the tax. “This is a real blow to innovation, and to the growth prospects of recorded music in France,” said a representative of the company. “We are evaluating the follow-up to be given to the implementation of this inequitable, unjust and disproportionate measure.”
It is not the first time that Spotify has come into conflict with other nations’ domestic laws in recent months. In November, the company announced that it will no longer provide its services in Uruguay due to the country’s copyright laws that would require “equitable remuneration” for artists.
“Changes that could force Spotify to pay twice for the same music would make our business of connecting artists and fans unsustainable, and regrettably leaves us no choice but to stop being available in Uruguay,” said a Spotify spokesperson at the time.
Earlier this month, the streamer said it will be cutting down 17 per cent of its workforce in order to save costs. That follows a previous decision in January to lay off 6 per cent of staff.
Chief executive Daniel Ek said that the new decision was “difficult” but was made because economic growth had “slowed dramatically”. Spotify employs around 9,000 people, meaning 1,500 jobs were lost in the recent round of layoffs.
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