I agree with all of this. But that’s something Spotify could and should do in general, the threshold of 1000 doesn’t make a difference until they do change that (which they won’t).
1 Like
It’s no effort, really.
2 Likes
I don’t care what anyone says, that’s my favorite Godspeed album.
3 Likes
while I agree with your sentiment that spotify sucks for indie/underground artists, on the contrary theres also no reason not to upload it there, as an artist you kind of want all the free exposure you can get, and some people just use spotify and if ur music is not on there, they wont bother to check it out if they saw it somewhere, or someone stumbles on it and it leads to more opportunity etc.
Unless you want to save the 20€/yr it costs on distrokid to just distribute to all music streaming
if you dont care at all that your music is accessible/reaches anyone then yeah, why upload music anywhere anyways
The artists boycotting spotify are sadly these than can afford to do it
spotify sucks but it is what it is, its still the most widely used platform
that being said, i am welcoming its demise
7 Likes
Career Art is just marketing for other companies.
You’re either selling people chic-a-cherry colas, or selling people the idea that they should rise up to tyrannical forces(overseas, of course)
1 Like
Well, if you want people to easily be able to listen to your music, Spotify is probably currently the best way to do that. It’s where most people listen to music. They can stream or download your track or EP/album and listen to it on their phone. It also makes you seem like a “legit” musician to many. So if you wanna play shows and get people to listen to your music, it’s not absurd to upload it to Spotify so that you can share the link in messengers and venues can embed it in their show notes. Probably not a must, but I would say things are probably a bit harder if you boycott it altogether, although you won’t make money from streams and most likely won’t be discovered there without touring a lot / doing a lot of Social Media etc.
5 Likes
Any air of legitimacy is quashed by the “2 monthly listeners” right beneath your moniker
7 Likes
You might be right about that. I kinda like that Bandcamp hides my listeners from the public but shows me the stats.
As someone who also uses Spotify for convenience, it’s nice to be able to put someone’s music on personal playlists. For example, Ylva’s tracks would be on a lot of my playlists if their music was on Spotify. It’s just not that easy to do that with other services and I really like to make playlists for myself or friends.
4 Likes
Yeah. I like Spotify, i use Spotify.
Earlier this year I pulled most of my stuff from Spotify mostly due to that data of monthly listeners, it felt like the musical version of hanging from the high school flag pole by a wedgie
8 Likes
yeah, you just make it a bit harder for yourself. even if you get like 10 monthly listeners, probably 5 of them wouldnt have listened to your music if it wasnt on spotify. but you could argue about the importance of that, but in my experience if youre a small artist and you care about growing, youre sadly gimping yourself by boycotting the most popular platform.
some people wont care about that at all but thats a different story i think.
i personally funnel everyone to bandcamp for my music and never post spotify links ever, but I still got 3000 monthly listeners on shittify and im not sure these people would just go straight to BC
2 Likes
This really sucks for me. I make little money from it after this it will be even less.
Another issue with streaming numbers, maybe less so for you, but its a shot in the dark for how legitimate those streaming numbers are.
I had a little boost in my Spotify numbers a couple years ago. People couldn’t get enough of Mirador- all of it old stuff i don’t identify with anymore.
“Well, great! If they think THATS good, wait till they hear the NEW album”
Nothing.
My project must have benefitted from another campaigns bot farming 
2 Likes
most of the artists that have tens of thousands of streams and no money are getting shafted by their record label, not Spotify tbh.
well, MORE by their record label than Spotify anyway.
This is a dick move from Spotify, but in order to operate they basically had to sell a lot of their company to the major labels and at the end of the day it is REALLY in the Major label’s interest to make indepedently releasing music as hard as they possibly can.
The likely result of this is that a lot of indie/DIY artists abandon Spotify - which must sound like a dream to Universal/Sony/Warner really.
They want you to pay them to get distribution/ads through their distro networks not release direct to Spotify.
“Cartel” is such a dirty word. But.
6 Likes
per track?
That’s a lot of independent musicians WITH label deals, never mind without!
I guess the reason people do it is the same reason they bother to release music at all - they’re hopeful more people than listen to it now will want to listen to it in the future?
You don’t get to 100,000 people listening to a track without 1000 people listening to it first right?
I mean, the notion of “making it” is pretty nebulous for 99.9% of musicians, and not very healthy, but it’s pretty infectious!
1 Like
yeah, that is true. the way music is consumed there, bot or not, is also very shallow, people just hear something in a playlist or on the algorithm or whatever. But even then, if it leads to like 5 people actually being interested i would consider that a win.
i don’t really make too much of the numbers and just see it as a tool to have your music more widely available.
2 Likes
I only really play open mics/small shows, but for all the hundred or so artists I’ve seen/played alongside over the last couple of years, not a single one has referenced Spotify, it’s pretty much all been bandcamp or physical merch.
Oh shit.
You’re right, I’ve misread it, I took it as 1000 listens per artist.
Carry on.
1 Like
Thats how I interpreted it too. That kinda sucks.
Not so much the payout, but the shaping of behavior. The death of the album.
I hate going to an artists page and being inundated by a neverending slew of singles.
Whatever, we’re given what we deserve. Spotify continues to suck while bandcamp gets passed around like a rotten hot potato.
Cheers!
3 Likes
In any case, the next step will be raising the bar higher. Next year it’ll be 10000 plays I guess. Just guessing from how companies and politicians do their work.
7 Likes
yea i totally agree. for an underground artist a few monthly listens on a streamer isn’t going to do sh*t for you I reckon. the reality is in certain musical quarters you’re always going to be a fringe player in society, so better to just sell your stuff direct thru a bandcamp type setup & physical merch rather than hoping a few random people who stream your song for free and most likely don’t give a f*k are going to amount to anything.
at least with being selective you may garner some form of vibe. if you’re good, and only available direct I think that’s kinda cool. bit o morals, slightly elusive. feels good to me personally.
1 Like
Yeah, I’m inclined to agree.
I remember when you had to get off your arse and travel to a record store to find new and interesting music. The search was a big part of it, and really helped with engaging with music.
Not sure I’m all that bothered about attracting passively engaged half-listeners via Spotify.
8 Likes