That million plays on Spotify got us everywhere, but it’s not a lot to live off
In a special report for Dydd Miwsig Cymru, Welsh Language Music Day, Llanrug duo Alffa and some of Wales’ other most successful musicians have their say on the pros and cons of the streaming giant
IN 2018, the teenage duo Alffa became the first band in the Welsh language to reach one million plays on Spotify.
Sion Land and Dion Jones, who were both 18 at the time, were struggling to get a gig in Caernarfon let alone making a name for themselves.
Their producer, Ywain Gwynedd from Recordiau Cosh label alongside the aid of online distribution service PYST, suggested that they pitch one of their songs from their debut album Rhyddid O’r Cysgodion Gwenwynig (Freedom From The Poisonous Shadows) to Spotify, with the hopes that the song would make it to one of the streaming service’s popular playlists.
To the boys’ surprise, their song Gwenwyn, which means ‘Poison’ in Welsh, made it to the service’s Walk Like A Badass and The Rock List playlists, alongside the likes of the Arctic Monkeys, White Stripes and The Strokes.
By December of that year, the song had reached a staggering one million plays.
”I wasn’t expecting it at all,” said the drummer, Sion Land.
“We were still a relatively new band where the biggest gig we got was at our local rugby club. We had this mentality that we were a ‘Welsh band’ and that was it.
“Not that we felt like we couldn’t do it, but trying to reach the international scene just felt very far away at that time.”
Their success proved the Welsh-language pop and rock music scene was the strongest it had been in years and that the fact the duo sang in Welsh had no bearing on how far their music could reach.
Perhaps a few years prior, this would have seemed impossible for a minority language.
In fact, nearly a decade beforehand, artists and writers in the Welsh language were left in a difficult situation when changes were brought in to the most important aspect of promoting their music – radio.
In 2007, the Performing Rights Society (PRS) introduced a new policy on rights, which led to a significant cut in the income Welsh-language composers and artists received for having their music played in public venues like shops and clubs.
According to PRS, the decision to cut these rates was led by the notion that “less Welsh language music was being played in public than they had previously estimated”. Many Welsh language artists claimed the change cut their royalty payments by as much as 85%.
After unsuccessful negotiations with the PRS, the Welsh music community withdrew from the PRS completely and subsequently created Eos. The committee was formed to secure a substantially improved deal for an entirely different set of rights with the BBC. But neither party could reach an agreement. The BBC insisted on paying around £100,000 annually for the right to play the music, while
EOS insisted that the BBC pay around £1.5m.
As no agreement was reached, Welsh language station BBC Radio Cymru had to implement changes to its broadcasting hours and programme content further affecting Welsh language artists and writers.
But as music evolves, so does the way we consume it. Spotify boasts around 165 million subscribers and streaming has made it more of a level playing field for artists all over the world.
According to Sion, Alffa’s debut album is still going strong on Spotify.
Gwenwyn has reached around 3,451,425 plays, while other songs from the album are also performing well – Full Moon Vulture has reached 1,589,498 and Pla has reached 1,392,433.
The band has attracted listeners from South America, the USA, Australia and the rest of the UK.
In 2020, their hit song was used in the intro for the I’m A Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here series filmed in Abergele.
“Spotify simply allows bands to reach people worldwide,”
Sion explained.
“The fact it reached so far is so bizarre to me. I have to pinch myself sometimes, because as the streams are all virtual it’s hard to fathom how many people actually listen to our stuff.
“That million plays definitely got us to a lot of places. I remember going down to the Sony studios in Kensington, and the minute people heard that we had reached a million plays on Spotify, their ears pricked up and they started taking notice of us.
“Before the release of Gwenwyn, we were nothing. We could hardly get a gig in Wales, let alone in Brighton and Liverpool, where we have performed since.”
But the economics of music consumption remains a concern for many Welsh language musicians.
While artists get money whenever their songs are played on radio, streaming works in a different way. The money owed to rights holders for recordings streamed on Spotify is paid to artists through the licensor that delivered the music, typically their record label or distributor.
When a song gets played on Spotify, the rights holders receive royalties for it, whether it’s played by a premium or adsupported customer.
“If we lived off the sole earnings we got from Gwenwyn, we could probably live off it for three weeks,” Sion said.
“It was enough for us to finish the album at the time – the artwork, promotion and the studio costs. But not that much to live off in the long term.”
Gwenllian Anthony, from Carmarthen indie-rock group Adwaith, agrees.
With their post-punk mixed with indie pop sounds, they are one of many bands at the forefront of a change in Welsh-language music. Their moststreamed song, Fel I Fod, has reached more than 920,000 plays so far on Spotify.
And despite reaching fans as far as America, Japan and Italy, Gwenllian notes it’s almost impossible to earn anything from the streaming service – but even more pertinently, it’s almost impossible to live without.
“I have a love-hate relationship with Spotify,” she said. “The obvious advantage is the playlists. That’s when the plays increase and you reach audiences you wouldn’t reach otherwise. You find out the age range, which countries they come from and how many plays you get – the songs go everywhere; it’s mad.
“When we started the band, we never thought that singing in Welsh would get us to these places and now we are selling vinyl in America. I think that it just comes to show it doesn’t always have to be about the language or having a specific connection to that country, if you love the music enough – that is enough.
“But the obvious disadvantage is that we’re not paid a substantial amount – you get pennies from these streams. Fel i Fod, for example, made a couple of thousand for us. If it was a fraction higher that would be a step forward.
“But despite that, people naturally expect you to be on Spotify now – especially if you are a new band, you can’t not be on Spotify. It was always going to go this way but I do think there’s room for improvement.”
“You get pennies from these streams... but if you’re a new band you can’t not be on Spotify” Gwenllian Anthony
Ywain Gwynedd of Recordiau Cosh Records revealed that the most popular artists with the label receive a streaming income equivalent to selling around 700 CDs a year.
This could lead to a bigger income long term, but Gwynedd admits the streaming service’s payment structure does affect artists that are “more alternative or experimental”.
“People have moved to streaming because it gives value for money and offers different kinds of music all over the world for the price of one CD a month,” he explained.
“The shift from CDs has accelerated in the last five years – it’s nice to see that people are trying different things, but the concept of a musical album still remains strong.
“The value for money on Spotify is fantastic for someone that wants to listen to a variety of
music. One advantage for Welsh-language music is the fact that it offers a ‘window shop’ if you like on a global stage, which wasn’t possible to reach previously.
“It would’ve been impossible to see a CD or vinyl of a band like Gwilym right next door to a CD by Coldplay in HMV in London in the past, but playlists provide that opportunity for Welsh-language songs to be right next to some of the most popular songs in the world without people even having to question the thing.
“The obvious disadvantage is that the money streaming platforms provide artists and labels is shocking, and will probably remain the same until there’s a new way of consuming music.”
Like Gwenllian, he called for the streaming service to improve the platform’s experience for artists, but noted promoters, musicians and labels have responsibility to promote Welsh-language music too.
“I think there is space for streaming platforms to promote minority languages even more – I have tried contacting Spotify about Welsh-language songs, but had no reply,” he explained. “At the end of the day, it’s up to us as Welsh record labels and artists to continue to improve and be more professional, to the point where they have to take notice of the things that we do.
“Artists like Gruff Rhys, Gwenno and Alffa, for example, have had success in streaming and I’m sure it’s having an impact.
“BBC Radio 1 and 6 Music have been playing a lot of Welsh-language music over the years and it is a shame that platform doesn’t have the power it did years ago. Having said that, people like [broadcasters] Huw Stephens and Sian Eleri have been great for making sure there is space for Welsh-language music on these platforms and they deserve a round of applause for that.
“The first step is to ensure that things are as good as they can be at home first.
“The first professional and online music distribution in Wales, Pyst, have done a fantastic job over the last four years to ensure there is a process when it comes to releasing through labels, and with more independent labels than ever before, artists in Wales have the choice to partner with anyone that believes in their music and are ready to put the work in to promote.
“Things are always going to change in music and we have to adapt.
“We don’t have to like the change, and I think Wales and music has a strength in the fact that we are small enough to move quickly. It would be great to see Wales innovate by taking advantage of that. I’m sure there will be ways of doing that in the future.”