Geoff Bennett:
In a statement, a spokesperson for Spotify said it has paid out more than $60 billion to the recording industry since the business began. Spotify also said half of last year’s $10 billion payment, a record for a single retailer, went to artists signed to independent record labels.
“That,” the company said, “is a far cry from the pre-streaming era, when a radio station only had room to spin the top 40 tracks. It is an indisputable fact that with each year more artists are making more money on Spotify. The number of artists generating at least $1,000, $10,000, $100,000, even $10 million per year has at least tripled since 2017.”
But musicians like Sadie Dupuis of the band Speedy Ortiz say artists just don’t see enough of it.
