English band Portishead's member Geoff Barrrow shares frustration as he revealed how much the band earned in a 34 million streams. In the series of tweets, Barrow disclosed that they only made $2,500 or £1,700 from iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and Universal Music. These music streaming services are condescending not only for the band but as well as for several artists including "Blank Space" hitmaker Taylor Swift , who infamously pulled out her records from one of the top music streaming service Spotify.
Meanwhile, while Swift has been subtle about the move, Barrow rambles as he wrote "34,000,000 streams Income After tax = £1700 Thank U @apple @YouTube @Spotify especially @UMG_News for selling our music so cheaply" on Twitter.
Although in a later tweet, the Portishead's instrumentalist admitted that the numbers are only a "rough estimate." However, he insisted that it is not so far off from the truth. "Sorry seems like my tweet has hit a nerve! that's a rough estimate but it's not far off When is this madness going to stop?" Barrow shortly posted.
Barrow got no response and "confirmation" of his "rough estimate" from these music streaming services and from Universal Music. Yet, a tweet from Barrow later indicating he has nothing against streaming a record but he has a lot against people giving away his work for free.
This comes to roughly 0.007 cents per-stream going to Barrow, according to Consequence of Sound. While Universal Music is yet to respond how much is their share off of the band's 34 million streams.
Music Streaming Services Against Other Artists
Several artists have been forward for not being a fan of these music streaming services. One of them is Taylor Swift who infamously pulled out all her records from Spotify including her very first to the current bestselling "1989," leaving all her soundtracks from "The Hunger Games" and "Hannah Montana" and some collaborations with B.o.B and Tim McGraw. Now Jay Z recently started his own and entitled it "Tidal."
Music streaming services are becoming rampant due to the cheap packages compared to when the record is being bought. Are these music streaming services are fair in compensating Portishead and other artists? Does George Barrow have the right to demand to get a high share for the 34 million streams? Did Taylor Swift make the right move by shaking off all her records from Spotify? How much do you think is the share of Universal Music off of Portishead's million streams? Your thoughts in the comment section below!
Join the Conversation