El-P of Run the Jewels Criticizes Spotify for Lack of Protection for Artists Against Fraud

Brooklyn rapper and one half of acclaimed hip hop duo Run the Jewels has come out to criticize Spotify for allegedly not doing enough to protect the artist’s from fraud. In a series of Twitter posts, the rapper, who’s real name is Jaime Maline, clarified his beliefs that the site is not doing enough to make sure that people aren’t uploading other’s music under their own name.

“No matter how many times I pay my lawyer to take them down, Spotify just doesn’t care enough to not let other people upload songs to my page or my albums, that I own to theirs,” the artist stated in these posts. “What I mean is I regularly have to send take down notices not only for people using my name for their music and it appearing on my artist page but for people uploading my albums to their page and assumedly having my money diverted to them until we catch it.”

He goes on to explain that the way Spotify currently has their system means that the artist has to spend money going through their lawyer for the platform can take them down. His main complaint states that it is difficult, time consuming and therefore costly from a monetary perspective for artists through this system.

Despite these criticisms he states that Spotify is an important platform for artists, however he elaborates that he would like to see Spotify evolve, and change its terms of service regarding fraud. This way artists would not have top spend money to keep their music on a platform that isn’t the most profitable, due to the small percentage it pays its artists.

Outside of this controversy, El-P has been hard at work with his creative partner and Atlanta rapper Killer Mike with their duo Run The Jewels. Earlier this month the duo released track entitled “Let’s Go(The Royal We),” as part of the soundtrack for the film Venom.They also helped close out the Adult Swim Film Festival this month, alongside artists such as Neko Case and Kamaiyah.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

Aaron Grech: Writer of tune news, spinner of records and reader of your favorite author's favorite author. Give me the space and I'll fill it with sounds. Jazz, funk, experimental, hip-hop, indietronica, ambient, IDM, 90's house, and techno. DMs open for Carti leaks only.
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