This has been coming for some time but straw/camel’s back was earlier this week. My aim is to share this info without getting into a rant, but I may not manage it. Here’s why I am leaving Spotify:
Bots
I have complained before about inauthentic plays on Spotify. I contacted them in 2021 about irregular plays appearing on my stats and they insisted that they were authentic and if there were any irregularities, it must be because of my promotional activity.
For those who aren’t aware, the way Spotify works is that an independent artist needs to pay a distributor (in my case Distrokid) to access the marketplace (Spotify/Apple Music/Amazon etc.) in order to then recoup money through plays. Having an understanding of authentic plays is an important part of understanding whether it is a viable financial platform for independent artists. Personally, it has been loss making for the last few years (around $120 in distribution fees to $50 in sales across these platforms). Now, I accepted the loss for the sake of being in the marketplace and having people access my music on their preferred platform.
Some artists may choose to pay for ‘artificial streams’. These are bot services, which stream the music automatically and generate income and play statistics, which in turn give the impression that a musician has loads of followers. It’s a further false economy, because sites that offer these artificial streams cost more than the number of plays would return in revenue anyway, so it is just for dickheads who want to be seen to be popular.
I’ve never paid for artificial streams, but I have received them. Bot playlists will randomly add musicians, send a spike up in their stats, in an attempt to get advertising for their bot services. This is why I originally wrote to Spotify back in 2021.
Spotify can’t distinguish between who pays for bots and who is receiving these plays unwillingly. This week I received an email through my distributor that said Spotify were taking down An Unreachable Peak because of artificial streams. I was surprisingly zen about it, because it only brought forward a decision I had already decided to take. Spotify can’t control their own platform from bots, so it’s a waste of time.
Fans
When it comes to true fans/followers, Spotify is a piss poor platform for engagement. Again, I raised this a year ago, pointing out that only 9% of my followers actually listened to An Unreachable Peak in the first month. The Hobbyist was 2% of followers. That is a dismal rate of engagement. It’s clear that my audience isn’t really on Spotify or engaging with it meaningfully, and despite most marketing for those albums using Spotify as an embed, it is clear that many people didn’t follow through from other sites to engage with the albums either. Compare this to Bandcamp, which costs me nothing to distribute on (the site takes a percentage of sales), where I made approximately £80 of sales for An Unreachable Peak, and the plays/purchases align to the marketing and promotion. As mentioned earlier, Spotify is a waste of time.
Pollution
To add insult to the injury of artificial streams, I’ve become increasingly paranoid about the carbon footprint of these streaming platforms. I imagine a giant carbon waste generated by A.I. bots to generate play stats for a dead end music platform. Let’s be honest, it isn’t sustainable. So I am taking down my music from all platforms other than Bandcamp and Youtube. No disrespect to Amazon or Apple Music, I’m sure your platforms suck as much as Spotify and produce as much unaccountable carbon, so they’re getting ditched too.
Unsustainable business model
Aside from the environmental concern (which is ultimately all sustainability, as no environment = nothing else too), I’m uncomfortable with the concept of Spotify making a ‘business model’ out of artists putting music up and then not paying properly or rejecting music arbitrarily because of false streams. This argument is not new or original, loads of people are sick to death of this tightwad behaviour. But this is ultimately about consumer behaviour. The cost of a subscription to stream whatever you want in whatever quantity has lead to a consumption culture that is detached from the actual cost (economic or environmental). In my opinion, until that is reconnected (you pay more dependent on how much you stream), then this business model is environmentally and economically unsustainable. Ditto for video streaming platforms. Spotify is a waste of carbon.
Unethical business practice
There could be loads filed under unethical business practice. How about the recent decision to defund any artist tracks that haven’t reached 1000 streams? Paying Harry and Meghan loads while shafting artists? The Joe Rogan Covid scandal? Finally, when deciding to leave Spotify, it appears I am in a Hotel California situation (you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave). My artist profile must remain on the platform regardless of whether there is any music to actually play. While I wait for the distributor to dribble the instructions through to these platforms, I decided it was only appropriate to vandalise my own profile.
Goodbye Spotify, good luck in the flood.
