Metal label Century Media, home to bands like Sick Of It All, Iwrestledabearonce and Terror, has decided to pull its releases from the new-to-the-US streaming service, Spotify. The label put out this statement:
While everyone at the label group believes in the ever changing possibilities of new technology and new ways of bringing music to the fans, Century Media is also of the opinion that Spotify in its present shape and form isn’t the way forward. The income streams to the artists are affected massively and therefore that accelerates the downward spiral, which eventually will lead to artists not being able to record music the way it should be recorded. Ultimately, in some cases, it will completely kill a lot of smaller bands that are already struggling to make ends meet.
Physical sales are dropping drastically in all countries where Spotify is active. Artists are depending on their income from selling music and it is our job to support them to do so. Since the artists need to sell their music to continue their creativity, Spotify is a problem for them. This is about survival, nothing less and it is time that fans and consumers realize that for artists it is essential to sell music to keep their heads above water.
There’s a pretty entertaining back-and-forth happening between the label and the blog MetalSucks.
Anyone else get a Spotify invite yet? I’m going to editorialize for a second and point out that in the few weeks I’ve been using it, I’ve already discovered several new bands, bought a concert ticket that I wouldn’t have if the service hadn’t let me hear the group first, and added a handful of records to the list of albums I want to buy on vinyl if I ever have spare pocket money again.