If you want to listen to Colleen Power’s hit debut album, Lucky You Are, you won’t find it on Spotify. In fact, you won’t find any of her music there.
Power did publish her music on the streaming platform for a short time, but she said she removed her catalogue in 2020 when she realized she wasn’t making enough money.
“I got my first check from [Spotify] and the total streaming was … I believe 45,000 streams,” she told CBC News.
“The check was for $101, so I immediately became completely irate.”
According to Spotify’s website, the streaming service has more than 276 million paying subscribers. The company made €4.2 billion in its second quarter this year— the equivalent of about $6.6 billion Cdn — based on data from its public financial statements.
Power grew even angrier when she learned Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invested €600 million, or $968 million Cdn, from his venture capital firm into a defence technology company called Helsing this June.
Helsing’s products include airstrike software, an artificial intelligence-powered strike drone and an autonomous underwater glider.
“He’s investing this money into a company that is making kill drones … it’s a shame that this is what our music industry has turned into,” said Power.
She isn’t the only Newfoundland and Labrador artist who has left the platform. Artist Anthony Brenton and the punk band Snitfit also confirmed that they left Spotify.
The decision isn’t unique to Newfoundland and Labrador artists. Globally, other artists also made the decision to leave the platform.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, a post-rock band from Montreal, began the process of pulling their music from all online streamers last week.
The alternative rock bands Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard all cited Ek’s military investments when they backed away from Spotify earlier this summer.
CBC News made multiple attempts to contact Spotify for this story, but did not receive a response.
Meanwhile, Toronto-based music publicist Eric Alper said he admires the movement.
Although the streaming company might not miss independent artists from the east coast of Canada, Alper said it’s a bold move to leave.
“You always want to be where people are,” he said. “It’s hard out there when there’s not that many places to go.”
Alper said in some cases it makes a difference when customers or subscribers start to leave.
“It’s one thing for the artist to pull their music based on where they have an idea where the profits are going. It’s another for their fan bases to say, ‘Hey, wait a second, we’re subscribers so we’re kind of paying for this investment as well,'” he said.
Back in N.L., musician Neddal Ayad said the growing boycott has sparked important conversations.
Ayad doesn’t subscribe to the streaming platform. He uses the website Bandcamp to publish his experimental music.
“I’m not comfortable with my money going to arms companies,” he said.
The artist said he understands that streaming giants like Spotify have a strong hold on the industry, and are unlikely to see a direct impact of the boycott.
Still, Ayad said individual musicians and listeners still have the power to make a personal decision about where their money goes.
“Very few people are making any money,” he said. “The reason they’re on there is probably because they feel like it’s going to up their visibility.
“But if you’re just one person in a billion streams, is that really benefiting your career?”
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