Cradle Of Filth’s Dani Filth: “Spotify are the biggest criminals in the world…we had 26 million plays last year and I got about 20 pounds” https://t.co/GHG2Pady5M

— Metal Hammer (@MetalHammer) June 19, 2023

Spotify has become the method of choice for many music listeners, as the app’s relative ease of access and low expense make it a preferable place to keep music collections close at hand. This has not however, prevented the company from drawing criticism- especially from bands concerning how the app pays musicians for their work and how it allegedly gives preferential treatment to AI generated songs.

Dani Filth is having none of it, citing the digital age for a lot of bands either not making it at all or succumbing to the pressures that streaming places on many. Speaking about the industry in the modern era, Filth said, “it’s been deteriorating ever since…I think 2006 was the year that everything swapped from being comfortable for musicians-well, not necessarily comfortable, it was never comfortable. But [it went to] just being a lot harder with the onset of the digital age, the onset of music streaming platforms that don’t pay anybody.”

Arguably, and Filth certainly does point out, that the music industry has never been a necessarily friendly place for musicians. Prior to the digital boom, record companies often found themselves on the sharp ends of artist’s opinions, with many musicians even opting to form their own independent labels over the past few decades, to give artists more creative control over their projects.

Filth particularly reserved ire for Spotify who he says cheats artists out of a wage, claiming, “I think we had 25, 26 million plays last year, and I think personally I got about 20 pounds, which is less than an hourly work rate…I think people just have this amazing ability to [believe] that when you have stuff out there, like physical product, that you’re earning a fortune from it. They don’t realise you have so many people taking pieces of the pie…”

He also argued his belief that the post-pandemic and cost of living crisis has deterred many bands from touring-the expense just not worth it. With the ability to download music, many artists face not getting paid for their work, or at least not what they may deserve.

Filth has certainly opened up the floor to an interesting debate and one that will surely rage on, with almost everyone involved having an opinion. With more and more musicians looking to maximise their worth, who can tell what the future holds for the industry.

Last year, Cradle of Filth released new song “She is a Fire,” in anticipation of the release of their live album Trouble and their Double Lives. The band are currently working on what will be their 14th studio album.

They expressed concern at the so called ‘safe harbour,’ defence which has been plaguing the music streaming debate for a while now which involves services finding ways to avoid paying royalties to artists despite hosting their music. Leathem in particular expressed a strong willingness to work with the government in enforcing new regulations on the industry which may require streaming services or social media platforms to pay more royalties to musicians. However, while both Leathem and Martin did show a willingness to work with the government if new legislation was to be brought into place, there were some areas which both parties were keen to state that these were issues which ought to be raised with record labels, such as the controversial breakages clauses included in record deals where the majority of revenue is generated through streaming.

Artists have argued that clauses which stipulate a deduction of often as much as 10% be taken from their royalties to cover the cost of broken vinyl or CDs, are unfair when physical copies are not making up a significant amount of that revenue, with some even going so far as to claim that the labels are seeking to their own loss of revenue due to streaming at the artist’s expense.

Tune in to our third #MusicStreamingInquiry session with CMOs & music company CEOs:

– Andrea Martin, @PRSforMusic & Peter Leathem, @PPLUK
– David Joseph, @UMusicUK, Jason Iley, @SonyMusicUK & Tony Harlow, @WarnerMusicUK

More info: https://t.co/SheCv5v3Rk https://t.co/3H91Qmq9RY

— Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (@CommonsDCMS) January 19, 2021

In the second portion of the inquiry held yesterday, which is the third instalment in a series of hearings which have been running periodically since October last year with a variety of witnesses being called, consisted of a tense series of questions being posed to record label bosses which was characterised by serial evasiveness by the bosses and increasing frustration for the MPs.

The most difficult question for the bosses to handle was in reference to Spotify claiming that certain labels had in 2017 agreed to allow them to reduce royalties in return for meeting certain economic targets. The MPs pressured the label bosses to state whether or not artists had suffered a reduction in royalties as a result of this deal but none of the executives were able to give a convincing answer, despite claiming that the amount of money they paid to artists has increased.

Fans who have ordered ‘weird!’ which is due to release in earnest December 4th which is, according to NME, ‘due to vinyl production delays,’ are eligible to one free ticket for the tour which is going to showcase the song’s which Yungblud has slaved over and sat on for so long now. The tour is due to begin in London, then continue on to Glasgow, Manchester, Dublin, and then to Europe in a series of concerts which will be livestreamed to fans in each location every day from the 16th to the 23rd of November. After a sort break the American leg of the tour will then begin on the 30th of November and continuing through the first week of December.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by YUNGBLUD (@yungblud)

Tickets for the event are refreshingly affordable, which shows that Yungblud is at least taking into account the fact that the events are digital live streams and not comparable to the real events. This fact does seem to have sadly been lost on some artists or labels who still seem to be charging a similar ticket price for a live stream than one might pay for a real concert. Fortunately tickets for Yungblud’s digital world tour are quite cheap, just £4.65 per ticket including a small service charge.

Yungblud has been holding onto the physical release of this ‘weird!’ album for a while now, with coronavirus restrictions delaying production of vinyl copies and leaving fans with preorders waiting eagerly until December now. Fortunately for those eager to hear the sounds of Yungblud, many of the tracks from the album have now been released digitally with the latest single ‘cotton candy (the morning after)’ the latest one to drop yesterday. The tune has already clocked 177,026 views in the 24 hours since its upload, an impressive feat for an artist in the alternative genre.

‘cotton candy (the morning after),’ has a simplistic acoustic feel which seems to lie somewhere between Oasis and Blink 182 and Yungblud has all of the Punk energy of both. Yungblud deals with a number of issues on the minds of young people today. Most notably the issue of modern sexuality and is actively encouraging of experiencing such things without shame and lightly encourage’s promiscuity, as the lyrics subtly hint at the singer taking part in encounters with numerous different partners.

Yungblud is an androgynous figure and like many indie and alternative artists at the moment is something of a champion for the LGBT community as he messes with gender stereotypes using both lyrics and appearance.