*READ TO THE END*
I wanna start by saying THANK YOU to everyone who’s listened to my music this year. Thank you for letting me soundtrack part of your 2025. In July, I put out a project that I’m immensely proud of. Making the “Stranger At Best” EP took a year and a half of writing, re-writing, re-re-writing, producing demos, long engineering days, mixing/mastering, teaching myself how to market, playing out – a turbulent yet beautiful experience that I’m sure many fellow independent artists can relate to.
Spotify was a listening platform that I loved so much growing up. I found my favorite music using it. And, as an artist, I feel grateful that listeners have discovered me the exact same way. But I want to echo the growing concern that many have expressed about Spotify, since it directly affects my livelihood: Spotify does not pay artists a living wage.
I hit 170,000+ streams this year. I made just over $500 in revenue. A year of labor, which cannot even cover 1 month’s worth of my rent in Nashville. While artists were struggling to make ends meet this year, former CEO Daniel Ek invested into AI warfare overseas. Spotify continues to be a huge discovery platform for artists, but so many of us feel trapped and guilty for indirectly contributing to violence and artist inequality.
So… what can we do?
“The Living Wage for Musicians Act” aims to increase streaming royalties for musicians. They do so by taxing non-subscription streaming revenue and adding a small fee to streaming subscriptions. The money would go into an Artist Compensation Royalty Fund and then distributed directly to recording musicians. The bill was created by
@weareumaw and was introduced this past September, but has yet to pass the House and Senate.
If you want the musicians in your life to be able to afford to create music, I urge you to call your state reps and put the pressure on to secure a vote. The world needs artists, and artists deserve to live off their art.
I’ve linked the main site for The Living Wage for Musicians Act in my bio. Thank you so much again for being here.
❤️PL
