Musicians in lockdown raise voice against dwindling income
LONDON: Lockdown bans on live performances have left many British musicians on the breadline, fuelling a campaign for them to get a bigger share of the profits from streaming their songs online.
“I’m getting contacted by lots of young artists who have millions of streams from 200,000 monthly listeners and don’t make the minimum wage,” musician Tom Gray from English indie band Gomez told Reuters. Gray has founded the Broken Record campaign to pressure the industry into doing more for the people who make the music. While platinum-selling Gomez has racked up millions of plays on Spotify, the marketleading online music platform, this amounts to “a few pennies” of income for Gray.
That is because the money paid by consumers for major online music platforms goes into a central pot that is distributed to artists according to market share.
So if someone pays 10 pounds ($12) a month and listened only to Gomez, their money would still find its way to the world’s top artists and their record labels.
The streaming companies say they are doing their utmost to help artists during the lockdown. Spotify has pledged to match donations to music charities up to a total of $10 million and Apple Music launched a $50 million fund for independent record labels and distributors.
The Help Musicians UK charity has paid 8.5 million pounds to 17,500 musicians who have run out of money for essentials. But many more musicians are struggling, shut out of state lockdown support programmes because their incomes are irregular. A Musicians Union survey earlier this month found 38% were not eligible for government help.
“I know how hard this is already for so many people and I can see how truly terrifyingly bad it’s going to get,” said Gray, whose campaign is backed by Boy George, John Grant, and the Shins.
Hot Chip, a popular electrotinged indie band, had planned a global tour through 2020. Now, the musicians and their nine-strong crew have lost much of their income, despite millions listening to their music online every month - a fanbase that might have earned Hot Chip a “bed of gold” decades ago.