Spotify criticized by musicians for “tone-deaf” ad promoting free trial
Spotify is being criticized by artists and those in the music industry for their latest ad campaign for their free 30-day Premium trial.
The company launched a “Dance like nobody’s paying,” campaign to et people to sign up for a free trial.
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However, the company is getting a lot of heat by those in the music industry due to the way musicians make money through streaming.
Musician Blake Morgan slammed the streaming giant on Twitter, calling the campaign “tone-deaf.”
“Keep in mind that it takes 380,000 streams a month on @Spotify for an artist to earn minimum wage. Meanwhile, the average @Spotify employee earns $14,000 a month. Nobody’s paying? We musicians are, with our lives,” Morgan wrote.
Here’s @Spotify’s new tone-deaf ad campaign. Keep in mind that it takes 380,000 streams a month on @Spotify for an artist to earn minimum wage. Meanwhile, the average @Spotify employee earns $14,000 a month. Nobody’s paying? We musicians are, with our lives. #IRespectMusic pic.twitter.com/mroqQNGxLJ
— Blake Morgan (@TheBlakeMorgan) July 9, 2019
He wasn’t alone. Many other people agreed with him and criticized the use of the campaign.
See what they had to say below.
WTF @spotify!?! How did anyone in your company think this was a good idea?? #FAIL
— Amy Gardner (@AmyGardnerECR) July 9, 2019
A culture that declares music to be worthless and disposable gets worthless, disposable music.
How much longer till we all #DeleteSpotify?
Spotify Draws Fire For ‘Tone Deaf’ Ad Campaign: ‘Dance As If No One Is Paying” https://t.co/ztRHO6bABA#IRespectMusic
— David Poe (@poedavid) July 9, 2019
That is simply awful. Just think, the ad agency employee who came up with that tone-deaf (pun intended) foolishness is paid more than the vast majority of artists on Spotify.
— Marianne (@spiritedcretin) July 9, 2019
The message of this campaign feels like a deliberate punch in the gut for us artists. After being confronted time and again for not paying artists fairly, @Spotify should know better. This ad rings like a taunt from a schoolyard bully. #IRespectMusic
— Janita (@JANITAartist) July 11, 2019
Spotify knows exactly what it is doing. It’s similar to the US campaign they launched with in 2012 “Don’t pay for music again”. That’s when I started speaking out and publishing my earnings. Filesharing was never a threat to my livelihood, but Spotify is. https://t.co/uSfUhuLxW5
— Zoe Keating (@zoecello) July 12, 2019
Other Spotify news
Spotify has changed the way artists can upload music, now prohibiting individual musicians from putting their songs on the streaming service directly.
The new move requires a third party to be involved in the business of uploads.
The company announced the change two weeks ago, with them saying it will close the beta program and stop accepting direct uploads by the end of July.
“The most impactful way we can improve the experience of delivering music to Spotify for as many artists and labels as possible is to lean into the great work our distribution partners are already doing to serve the artist community,” Spotify said in a statement on its blog. “Over the past year, we’ve vastly improved our work with distribution partners to ensure metadata quality, protect artists from infringement, provide their users with instant access to Spotify for Artists, and more.”
“The best way for us to serve artists and labels is to focus our resources on developing tools in areas where Spotify can uniquely benefit them — like Spotify for Artists (which more than 300,000 creators use to gain new insight into their audience) and our playlist submission tool (which more than 36,000 artists have used to get playlisted for the very first time since it launched a year ago). We have a lot more planned here in the coming months,” the post continued.
The direct upload function began last September, allowing independent artists to utilize the streaming site without distribution methods.
Smaller artists will now need to return to sites like Bandcamp, SoundCloud and others to upload their material.
What do you think of the Spotify ad campaign? Sound off in the comments down below!
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