'Weird Al' Yankovic Takes a Dig at Spotify's Artist Payment System in Year-End Wrapped Video

Yesterday (November 29), the streaming platform rolled out its 2023 edition of Wrapped, a feature that allows users to discover their most played songs of the year. While some artists send video messages to their biggest fans, Yankovic utilized his to express dissatisfaction with the platform’s compensation structure.

“Look, I’ll make this really quick,” Yankovic stated in the video. “I just want to thank you all for your amazing support. It’s my understanding that I had over 80 million streams on Spotify this year so, if I’m doing the math right, that means I earned $12. Enough to get myself a nice sandwich at a restaurant.

“So, from the bottom of my heart, thanks for your support, and thanks for the sandwich.” The platform stirred controversy earlier this year when it decided to modify its royalty model. Now, songs will only start generating income after they have been streamed 1,000 times.

Spotify’s data reveals that out of approximately 100 million songs on the service, only about 37.5 million meet the new criteria to earn revenue.

This implies that roughly 60 percent of the songs will not meet the new threshold, although Spotify noted that these songs account for less than one percent of the service’s total streams.

Moreover, labels and distributors will face penalties for supplying content linked to fraudulent streams. Furthermore, functional tracks, such as white noise or ambient sounds, will need to be played for a longer minimum duration than music tracks to qualify for royalties.

Despite these modifications, Spotify’s third-quarter profits and subscriber growth exceeded expectations. Given the revenue that Spotify is poised to take from independent artists, it’s reasonable to anticipate that their next quarter will be even more lucrative.

Find the the vdeo of Al HEre:
https://x.com/rayfp/status/1729941035852181768?s=20