Recent news revealed that Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek has been investing heavily in military tech companies, which adds another ethical layer to a platform already criticized for how little it pays musicians !

Spotify only pays artists about $3–5 per 1,000 streams, using a pro-rata model that directs most money toward major stars… By contrast, Qobuz (≈$18–20 per 1,000 streams) and Tidal (≈$12–13) pay far more fairly!

However Tidal is far from ethical. Most of its revenue is controlled by private investors and founders and small artists still earn very little…

More fair-minded platforms like Bandcamp, Resonate, Ampled, or SoundCloud’s fan-powered royalties prioritize musicians over investors.

With these more ethical alternatives available, why do we keep using Spotify?

  • BaroqueInMind@piefed.socialEnglish
    411·
    14 hours ago

    Because Spotify does everything better in every way possible, there is literally no way to argue this fact without baseless opinions spoiling the discussion.

    So much so that, short of an angel investor coming from heaven itself to pay billions of dollars with zero stipulations, there is no way for any other company to catch up without being offered an extremely ridiculous lucrative buyout from Spotify that only the dumbest of MAGA cultists would refuse.