This was an online event during the pandemic
I'm not american and I sometime don't get your culture, wtf is this million dollars event that requires big companies to do substantial donations? If they're invited it might be "common procedure" that they donate in return? In that case donating would be the neutral thing to do? (Which is still a bit cowardly)

[–] bpev@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

been using Qobuz the past month. It's been pretty much awesome so far, also since I enjoy buying albums as well.

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 13 points 2 days ago

what is spotify pretending to be?

https://pitchfork.com/news/spotify-hosts-trump-inauguration-brunch-and-makes-150000-donation-to-ceremony/

In addition to the brunch, Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter reports that Spotify donated $150,000 USD to the inauguration ceremony and celebration. Apple and Amazon, whose music-streaming arms are among Spotify’s competitors, donated $1 million USD each to Trump’s inauguration, Variety and Axios reported recently.

[–] Benjaben@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've had enough of Spotify's anti-artist practices since being an early adopter, I pay for a premium family account and I'm ready and willing to jump to any service with a not-narrow range of music that treats artists better. I'd rather not just sail the seven seas cuz I find the management of it all annoying, but I'm real irritated with Spotify and ready to consider maybe even that if there's just nothing else.

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

as far as I know there's no streaming platform that treats artists great, like great as in anyone can come along and start making a living making music even if you only have 1000 listeners because quite frankly it's too easy to make music these days:

Music Streaming Hits Major Milestone as 100,000 Songs are Uploaded Daily to Spotify and Other DSPs

https://variety.com/2022/music/news/new-songs-100000-being-released-every-day-dsps-1235395788/

If this was the 1950's and there was like 100 million people listening to 100,000 artists then yeah, most would probably get paid well but this is the onlyfans era of music, 99% of people make fuck all and a few big superstars make a shitload

The good news is that streaming giants like Spotify do payout quite a bit, so while you feel like you're not supporting artists enough, tbh you are doing quite a lot as part of a larger group:

https://www.techspot.com/news/106538-spotify-10-billion-payout-2024-signals-renewed-appreciation.html

The big picture: Spotify has set a record for the highest annual payment to the music industry from a single retailer for the second time in as many years. In 2014 when the industry hit a low of just $13 billion in global revenue, Spotify had around 15 million subscribers and contributed roughly $1 billion to the pot. A decade later in 2024, the Swedish streaming specialist paid out a record $10 billion to the music industry.

Now, over 10,000 artists are making at least $100,000 annually on Spotify.

If you want to support them even more then yeah, best thing to do is buy their vinyl records/merch etc

[–] Benjaben@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Thanks very much for the well thought out (and sourced) response!

I occasionally watch videos by a YouTuber named Benn Jordan (just a coincidence with my own Lemmy username to be clear), and he gives what look like pretty damning arguments to me that the numbers Spotify is publishing are misleading and not telling the whole story, and that their treatment of artists over time is growing worse.

Here's one of the videos I think I remember being fairly compelling - https://youtu.be/gDfNRWsMRsU

I thought there was a more recent one but I'm not finding it. Anyway with that said, I've got no dog in this fight and I only watch some of that stuff recreationally, I lack a ton of info.