Gavin Castleton
http://gavincastleton.com
In case you’ve been under a rock, there’s a new music service that’s been expanding it’s service as of late. A service that has recently led to it’s founder/CEO Daniel Ek being called the most important man in music. I highly disagree with this statement for a few reasons. The most important reason being the most important people in music are those that create it – without us he has no business. Do I think there’s promise in his model. Yes? But there are at least 8 things spotify music should do to show they want to help musicians and care about them. I gotta give credit to Gavin Castleton for being the inspiration of this post. Let’s get to it…
1. How about promoting the sale of music? That’s probably the toughest one because it’s against the grain of a streaming radio service. How to do this: Put “Buy Now” links on album pages and next to individual tracks.
2. Do what Apple and other sites have done – vette the artist and allow them to edit their profiles.
3. How about promoting where people can find more information on the artist? Easy to do if Spotify would display links to official websites, FB pages, twitter and pinterest (et al).
4. Allow users to “Like” and “Follow” an artist right from the Artist page. Though this corresponds with the last point. Most sites now allow people to “Like” and “Follow” almost everything. Get with it!
5. Assist artists in building their fan base by allowing users to sign up for artists’ email list from the Artist page. This goes back to allowing artists to edit their profiles. It would be fantastic to allow inputting of scripts to gather email from fans.
6. Serving ads in a way that did not encourage users to interrupt their listening mid-album/playlist in order to listen to or do something else. Terrestrial radio doesn’t do this, why do you?
7. Equalize the monetization. Pay independent artists the same rates as major label artists. Or better yet, cut indies in on a percentage share of the company. If not sharing the revenue, then give independents equal pay + the 18% extra.
8. Pay artists a flat rate for their streams. Don’t tie their royalty rate to advertising revenue over which the artist has no control. Artists should not be taking on risk along with Spotify unless they’re also given stock options in the company. The current Spotify model treats artists like investors but without any [equity-type] long-term benefits.
Care about the musicians you listen to? Make a stink about Spotify. Email their customer support. Email Daniel Ek. Write letters and the musicians you care about get the recognition and compensation they deserve from the companies that make their business model and living off the backs of artists.
Support Gavin, and Single of the Day. Buy his music. Sign up for the email list in the upper right (that’s mine).