Originally Posted By: Mike Halloran
Well, it's an interesting talk and he's described problems have been known a long time. I can't discuss much of what I did at ASCAP for all those years but the PROs absolutely know how bad this is and why.

His proposed solutions, likewise, are spot on but Björn and Benny don't even have the clout to get Spotify to change their wicked ways… It would surprise me if ABBA hadn't brought more revenue into Sweden than Spotify. If they can't get the major offender from their own country to behave, it's more dire than he lays out. And it is.

What I was hoping for are suggestions about what can be done by the public to put pressure on the streaming industry to actually make those changes. The real problem is that the public doesn't care—they want it free.

The European Union is ahead of the US in this regard but both are way behind considering the work that must be done. Continued pressure must be brought down from the EU and Congress. They let this system be born broken and the industry has no desire to fix itself. Repealing the DMCA and replacing it with a law that had teeth would be a start.

The great promise of the internet is that you can get anything you want whenever you want it.

The big lie is that it should be free.

According to a comment at the bottom of the following article from two years ago, "Spotify pays the labels (or whoever owns the master) VERY WELL. The labels in turn however, do not fairly account to their artists. And of course, songwriters get screwed." So, it seems that the best and easiest way for songwriters to rectify this situation in the short term is to have their own label company that owns the masters and publishes their songs because, as another comment further down states, "It is also much easier and cheaper for songwriters to be master and label owners today. Indie distributors make this possible for all."

https://www.shellypeiken.com/blog/songwriters-vs-spotify

Then there's the following article that further complicates this situation:

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/spotify-vs-songwriters-publishers-remain-confident-that-streaming-platforms-will-be-forced-to-increase-royalties-in-the-us/


Tom Levan (pronounced La-VAN)
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