The L.A based metal imprint has revealed to that they are in the process of pulling their catalog from Spotify, the UK music streaming site. Prosthetic Records is just one in the long list of labels removing themselves, following Century Media and Metal Blade’s removal last month.
Prosthetic Records qualifies their pulling of artists from Spotify by previously stating, “There [does] not appear to be an upside,” says Prosthetic co-owner E.J. Johantgen. The only income from the service comes in “fractions of pennies,” even on their biggest titles, he goes on to say.
Spotify has come under fire lately due to their alleged mistreatment or underpayment of the artist’s music they are playing. Many claim that this uneven distribution of funds do more harm to smaller musicians than it does good. UK folk band Uniform Motion shared with Gizmodo what they stand to make from Spotify streams, and it was almost nothing. (If you play their whole album every day for three years they’ll make $40)
With all of this suspicious activity, it seems that the classic artist versus large music conglomerate battle will ensue in the near future. After all, one could argue that the financial health of the major, and possible minor labels stand to improve if Spotify remains successful and continues to grow, making it capable to pay the artists more. All of them have ownership stakes in the service, so they also get access to revenue from subscriptions (Merely $5 monthly) and advertising. But the only revenue independent labels receive is pay-per-stream royalties. To Johantgen, this doesn’t sound quite right. “I would like to see what their projected ad revenue would be. Then we could really determine if their rates are fair.”
Stay tuned in the next few months to find out the fate of the independent labels and Spotify, the music streaming site they dropped.
Source Credit: LAWeekly.com
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