Paul Spain: Tech Commentator on Kiwi musicians boycotting Spotify

Top musicians are taking their music off Spotify and leaving the platform behind – but why? 

Kiwi musicians like Tiki Taane and The Bats have joined overseas acts like Deerhoof and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard in boycotting the platform, accusing it of exploitation, poor royalties, and subsidising big international acts. 

As it stands, each stream earns an artist around one-twentieth of a New Zealand cent. 

Tech commentator Paul Spain told Mike Hosking artists are making a fair point, as Spotify has been increasing their prices, but not artist payouts. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Is Tiki Tani the start of something locally on Spotify?
Sotani if you have not up on this is pulling
his music from the platform, He argues, exploitation, poor royalty,
subsidizing big names, et cetera. Each stream owns an artist
around about one twentieth of descent. Paul Spain, tech and
business commentator with US Paul Morning.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning mine.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
So we got the bats as well pulling out. I
don't think Spotify is shaking in their boots. Is this
a thing though? Internationally?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, this has been going on for some time and
it doesn't seem as though yea, it brings much much
change or action at the Spotify end.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
No, indeed not. I mean Taylor pulled out and she
came back, So if she can pull out and come back,
then nothing's changing. This is what it is, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah. Look, they're the most dominant platform for music streaming now.
I think something like seventy percent market share. You've got
YouTube Music as well, who probably pay out a little
bit more per stream, and Apple Music, who pay out
the most. The reason they're able to pay out the
most though, as they only have paid subscribers, whereas with Spotify,

(01:05):
you've got that free tier where it's ad supported. So
that's why they're in part why the numbers don't stack
up as well. Although Spotify have been increasing their prices
and they haven't been increasing their payout. So I think
there's a there's a fair point there from artists that
they probably should be getting a bigger slice of the revenue.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
What's actually driving at most Is it the slice of
the revenue or is it this politics? And they invested
in some military AI and it's got all political Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Look, I mean I think that the investment from their CEO,
Daniel eck In healsing and he's also chair of the board,
so this is not just an investment. He's invested something
like a billion New Zealand dollars in there, and you
know they're a defense company. And I think that's that's
something doesn't align very well with a lot of artists

(01:59):
that that music effectively is funding it. There is a
flip side, though, and I think, you know, it's important
to remember, you know, if we look back twenty five
years ago, the music industry was being disrupted not by Spotify,
but by nap Start, and you know, at that point
we were moving into a world where nobody paid for
music any longer, and the future of music was, you know,

(02:22):
was very much in doubt. You know, today for musicians
to do well, largely you know, it comes down to
doing you know, live shows and selling merchandise. So you know,
we've had these sort of two big disruptions that technology
has has enabled and facilitated when it comes to the
music industry. But you know, I can, I can totally

(02:44):
understand why musicians don't really want to be associated with
what daniel 's doing.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Fantastic good on you, Paul, good to catch up. Appreciate
it very much, and despite how clear that was, he's
not in the next room. He's actually in Singapore, which
by my accounts about coulda past three or four in
the morning. So he wins these Simon Memorial Prize this
week for getting up early and actually appearing on the program.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
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