Spotify unveils website explaining business model and analytics as it looks to prove it is not ‘the last desperate fart of a dying corpse’
Spotify has unveiled a new website following criticism from musicians about the pay-outs received from the music streaming service, which looks to make the business model clear and show details of how it calculates payouts for artists who have their music streamed on the platform.
The new site comes two months after Radiohead frontman Thom York told Mexcian website Sopita that Spotify was “the last desperate fart of a dying corpse” and that “no artists needs it”.
In July, he had tweeted “Make no mistake new artists you discover on #Spotify will not get paid. Meanwhile shareholders will shortly be rolling in it. Simples.”
Spotify is looking to fight back against these claims with the Sporify Artists website, which states that 70 per cent of all revenue from advertising and subscription fees is paid to rightsholders, which include the artists.
Announcing the new site in a blog, the company wrote: “As with digital downloading or the CD before it, the emergence of streaming services like Spotify has elicited a range of responses from fans, artists, and the wider music industry: excitement, curiosity, and, in some cases, skepticism.
“We understand all of these reactions. We are helping fans access and enjoy the world’s music in a new way, and with it, we are asking them to pay for their music in an entirely new manner too. As a result, the way that we compensate the people who actually own the music on Spotify is somewhat new and can be unfamiliar to many artists and managers.”
As well as explaining the business model, the new site launched artist analytics, which will allow artists to access Spotify’s data relating to their music.
Mark Williamson, director of artist services at Spotify, explained: “As an artist you will soon be able to see how much your music is being listened to on Spotify, which of your songs are most popular, and demographic information about your fans like their age, gender and location. Next Big Sound’s dashboard also enables you to see all of this data over time and alongside other important metrics like your fans’ activity on Twitter and Facebook.”
Spotify has paid $500m in royalties so far in 2013.