It is quite unreasonable to penalize labels and distributors who are not committing fraud, and then involve them as partners in developing a solution. Furthermore, it implies that Spotify now has the financial ability to benefit from this type of misconduct… but that is another topic.
Transparency is essential. Without Spotify's collaborative efforts to ensure openness, we are faced with an autocratic approach akin to being judge, jury and executioner.
However, I am optimistic that over time a level of transparency acceptable to us and our colleagues will be established.
Artists get legitimately scammed every day. Artists… if you’re reading this: DO NOT PAY ANYONE WHO GUARANTEES X STREAMS FOR X DOLLARS. If you do, you’ll pay double, get penalized, and essentially new zealand email list hurt your career for years. We’re currently compiling a list of all the companies, websites, and individuals promising this and working to bring them to justice.
Change #3: New policies for noise recordings (and other non-musical content like rain sounds, ASMR, etc.)
Starting next year, Spotify will increase the minimum length of functional noise recordings to two minutes in order to be eligible for royalties. (“Functional” genres include white noise, nature sounds, machine noises, sound effects, unspoken ASMR, and recordings of silence.)
Additionally, they are working with licensors to value noise streams at a fraction of the value of music streams.
Why? Spotify has stated the following as the reason for the change:
“By setting a minimum length, these songs will earn a fraction of what they did before (because two minutes of listening to noise recordings would generate one royalty stream, not four), freeing up that extra money to go back into the royalty pool of honest, hard-working artists…