‘A love-hate relationship with Spotify’

THE pandemic has meant most artists haven’t been able to earn a living from live gigs, which has put a focus on relatively low sums they have earned from streaming services.

With Adwiath’s post-punk mixed with indie pop sounds, they are one of many bands at the forefront of a change in Welsh-language music. Their most listened-to song – Fel i Fod, has reached over 930,000 plays so far on Spotify.

And despite reaching fans as far as America, Japan and Italy, Gwenllian Anthony told our sister website Walesonline earlier this year that it’s almost impossible to earn anything from the streaming service, but even more so, it’s almost impossible to live without.

“I have a love-hate relationship with Spotify,” she said.

“The obvious advantage is the playlists. 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 goes 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 in the right direction.

“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.”