Originally published at: Mary Trump ditches her Spotify podcast to protest Joe Rogan's presence on the platform | Boing Boing
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Oh, Nils Lofgren is in (out?), too?
Hey, younger artists… WTF!?! Seriously, one Taylor Swift has got to be worth a million Neil Youngs. Or is this just another example of how our selfishness and lack of empathy has utterly terrorized our elders?
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I tried to close my unused Spotify account and got an error. I already disliked them for trying to fracture the podcast world with “exclusives”.
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I hardly think that is a fair generalization. Trump and his ilk are hardly representative of the values of Generation Z or whatever labels we’re using to describe young people nowadays.
Even the young fascists like Ben Shapiro are always complaining that we need to return to the values of some idealized version of America’s past.
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The smaller artists on Spotify need a million listens to make $350.00 US dollars, and Joe Rogain got a $100 million up front for his blathering bullshit. The smaller artists need the cash, that’s why they stay.
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I’m not generalizing any generation, I’m just mystified by the fact that no one under, say 60 has joined the fight. I love Joni, Nils and… ok I really can’t stand Neil Young for the most part, but they’re hardly the most relevant artists of the day.
Agreed. His weakest grip is among that age group. Shapiro et al are outliers who speak of the idealized past largely because they’re so out of step with their peers.
I don’t think this protest has much to do with political alignment, but it’s undeniable that the least honored portion of our population (in the US at least) are the elders.
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Trump joins a growing number of musicians and podcasters who’ve left Spotify…
Their number isn’t growing very quickly, is it? I wonder if other musicians are locked into Spotify by contracts – either directly or via their labels.
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I’m not sure that I agree with that.
The last couple of guys elected to the White House were septuagenarians. Elder Americans are the only age demographic in the country that is guaranteed healthcare. The Americans who came of age during World War II are regularly and unironically referred to as “The Greatest Generation.” We accept things that only became part of American culture in the 1950s—like saying “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance or playing the same set of songs on the radio every Christmas—as if they were woven into the fabric of American culture since the beginning.
You want to see someone get disrespected, see what happens when a young person asks for a minimum wage that would provide the same buying power and economic opportunities their parents and grandparents had.
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Ok, fair points all. And I’m very much on the “the kids are alright” train. Whether one age group or another is treated worse is kind of immaterial, so let me reframe; our society has a distinct lack of empathy and support for our most vulnerable populations, which tend to be the two ends of the age spectrum.
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I loved Spotify. I’ve had a paid subscription almost since inception.
I canceled my subscription yesterday. I do hope that there is a mass exodus.
They’re not just hosting Rogan’s podcast, they are funding it.
I wonder if other musicians are locked into Spotify by contracts – either directly or via their labels.
I think Young and Mitchel had to work with their labels to allow that disconnect. Other artists may not have that leverage. The label’s prime interest are revenue streams and Spotify helps with that. It’ll be a tough sell for the labels to take that leap.
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Anyone know a good way to migrate playlists off Spotify? That’s basically the only reason I haven’t quit it yet.
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soundiiz.com and tunemymusic.com can do it, but they not free.
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India Arie has… Does she not count somehow?
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Right, good point. I forgot she joined. But still, that’s just one artist under 60 by my count.
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Younger artists are less likely to control their catalog.
To take Swift as an example. She had a pretty public dispute with her record company or whoever owns the rights to the bulk of her catalog specifically about those albums being listed on Spotify without her involvement and without her seeing any of the revenue from it. Which lead to her re-recording and re-releasing most of her albums and pushing to have them replace the original versions on a lot of platforms.
Still. She could be tweetin. Which is probably the bigger thing. The action here is the way Young’s move, and all the people joining in have driven people who probably don’t much listen to Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to cancel their subscriptions.
The major music companies kinda hate Spotify though. The rates Spotify pays are incredibly low vs other streaming platforms. And especially as compared to traditional revenue streams for the industry. Whether album sales or radio play. The industry being stuck in the past often views streaming as something that killed album sales.
That said Spotify’s royalty model often allows these companies to capture all of that payment, and pass very little on to the artists. In the same way the album sales used to. Hence the kinda.
But that also means that a lot of artists also hate Spotify.
I think that helps explain why Warner Bros, who only control part of the rights to Young’s music, would be on board.
Mitchell owns her own catalog outright.
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Yeah, it’s less the threat to pull catalogs and more the silence that mystifies me. I’m unfairly picking on TS as an example.
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The younger the artist the more likely they are not only on a major record label as opposed to their own record label, but also the more likely they are to have little to no influence over the label’s distribution of the music.
So many younger artists may well want to be off of Spotify, but the answer they get from their label is some variant of “go pound sand” (maybe “we will form a committee to evaluate the status change request, we will call you, don’t call us”).
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I just wish Spotify would let me block podcasts and podcast recommendations entirely. I don’t listen to them, but they show up prominently in the interface. I’m able to tell Spotify not to play a particular musical artist, but apparently podcasts are sacred.
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I don’t think it’s unfair.
She’s had multiple clashes with Spotify before. Has used her position to throw weight behind platforms with (supposed) better deals for artists. And has a couple of times pushed her fan base politically, particularly around the last couple presidential elections.
It definitely the sort of thing you might expect Taylor Swift to at least comment on. And she is a go to example of an artist with this kind of mobilizable fan base.
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The initial post here about Neil Young had so many comments about how Mr. Young doesn’t have the pull he thinks he does.
But it was a front page story in the Wapo, and then lots of stories about long waits to cancel.
I had no idea Rogan had a deal with spotify. I cancelled.
It turns out that Neil Young is more important than Spotify thought, even if he wasn’t important to them directly.
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