November 3, 2025
To my followers who are also Spotify users, I'm pulling all of my music from that particular platform by the end of November, and I thought you might want to know why my music disappeared.
It's no secret that streaming platforms have hurt most indie artists and the music industry in general, turning record sales revenue into tiny royalty streams. Most of us continue to host our music on the big platforms with the hope that more people will discover our music and become followers, and perhaps even fans. The reality is that a big corporation inserting itself between me the artist and you the listener is not really interested in fostering that kind of connection, only what advertising revenue it can bring in.
But all streaming platforms are not created equal, and Spotify has become a bridge too far for me personally.
- The Economics of Theft. Spotify pays out a pittance to artists for royalties, and fought in Congress tooth and nail to avoid paying any more while the founder and CEO's estimated net worth is over $6 billion. And now they've decided that if you have less than 1000 streams, they can use your and my music for free. They've arbitrarily decided that they simply don't have to pay royalties at all; that the cost of bookkeeping exceeds the revenue brought in.
- AI Content. Adding insult to economic injury, Spotify is apparently creating and serving up lots of royalty-free music using Artificial Intelligence. It doesn't take much imagination to see that slippery slope essentially destroying vast swaths of the songwriting and composing world, and quickly. I am choosing not to be party to that.
- Where the Money IS Flowing. As if those first two factors weren't enough, let's just say that some of my deeply-held philosophical and moral values are in diametrical opposition to a new core sector of Spotify's advertisers and investments. While I'm not naive about the “realignment” of corporate values in 2025, and their ubiquity in the big tech upon which we artists are dependent, leaving Spotify does make me feel a tiny bit better about not endorsing some of the worst of it.
I'm under no illusions that anyone besides you is going to notice my absence from Spotify, or that there aren't bad corporate actors involved with a whole lot of tools we indie artists use (social media, I'm looking at you).
I do want to be clear about my own position about streaming though - it's not a sin! Firstly, if you've ever bought my music on CD, download, or even cassette, OR donated at some point to one of my crowdfunding campaigns or livestream performances, please do stream my music guilt-free from your platform of choice. You've already helped me far more than the royalties that I'd receive (months after the fact) from however many dozens of my songs you might have streamed. It means the world to me that you WANT to hear my music, so please go right ahead and do so!
And if you haven't bought or donated at some point, and you'd like to be supportive, you are more than welcome to buy a download (or stream anytime for free!) from my Bandcamp store (the sales engine here on my website). Or if you are so moved, you can make a donation of any amount here at the website. A typical concert ticket for my shows is $20, which is basically the Spotify royalty for 16-18,000 streams, and likely more than I've received from them in the last two years.
Most of all, if you've read this far, you care, and for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart.