Spotify criticism is nothing new, but with AI-generated tracks flooding the platform and payouts to musicians still abysmally low, the outrage is boiling over again. A growing campaign dubbed Death to Spotify is calling for a reckoning—and they aren’t mincing words. Their mission? Dismantle the streaming giant’s grip on the music industry.
butt without big-name artists stepping upit may be a war without generals. As the campaign suggests, adapting to a modern music industry does not mean surrendering to the corporations profiting most from its decay.
How Spotify Is Killing The Music Industry
The new movement that has risen against Spotify attempts to regulate how much power the streaming platform has over the music industry. It began with a group of indie musicians who met at Bathers Library in Oakland, California, to address such issues algorithms, royalty theft, and AI-generated music.
When Spotify first rose to prominence in the 2010s, concerns around payment were the most prominent. Even the musician Caroline Rose points out, in a recent article from The Guardianit’s unfair that a body of work that artists put so much effort into should be available online for free.
While Spotify has made music incredibly accessible, it has subsequently devalued it, making it even harder for musicians to earn a living, specifically those who don’t have major labels backing them. Organizers of the Death to Spotify movement also raised a point about society’s penchant for instant access to media these days.
With streaming platforms allowing consumers to binge entire seasons of TV shows in a day, watch their favorite movies from their living rooms, and hear an album the second it drops, the world has grown accustomed to convenience. However, art gallery worker Manasa Karthikeyan doesn’t believe convenience should necessarily be a priority.
Karthikeyan feels that if people want to stand up for something and save the industry, they have to get comfortable with inconvenience. The movement is confident that music listeners are also influential in standing up to Spotify as artists are.
Why We Need A-List Stars To Speak Up
While the organizers behind Death to Spotify are doing what they can, what the movement really needs is some industry leaders to step in. People like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have been at the helm of the industry for decades, and their influence is more powerful than anyone else’s.
Swift and Spotify had their differences in 2014 when The Life Of A Showgirl artist pulled all her music from the platform, noting that if she didn’t stand up for the industry, there wouldn’t be an industry for the next generation.
Unfortunately, Swift was met with a lot of backlash and accusations of being greedy because she wanted to be fairly compensated for her work. Beyoncé also took some of her music off Spotify to promote her husband Jay-Z’s then-new streaming platform, Tidal, which promised to pay artists more than Spotify.
Both icons eventually caved in as well their efforts didn’t do enough to steer listeners away from Spotify. However, with the Death to Spotify movement on the rise, there’s no better time for both artists to rejoin the fight, especially after the success of Swift’s Eras tour and her latest album, The Life Of A Showgirl.
With the influence she’s gained since 2014, speaking out again might actually work this time. Rising stars like Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan have been incredibly outspoken about their beliefs and should join this new conversation too. Roan famously addressed the way labels poorly treat their artists when she won the Best New Artist award at the 2025 Grammys.
She received applause from artists like Benson Boone, who, as one of the biggest new stars of the year, could also use his influence. The sad reality is that if the top stars in the industry don’t get behind the movement, it will likely end up being the only thing that day
Source link
اترك تعليقاً