r/spotify • u/IanKetterer • 15d ago
Playlist Question / Discussion Spotify is erasing thousands of real bands from their platform, and charging to do so.
Hey I’m Ian from Seattle band Among Authors. We’ve toured the country and performed on NPR Tiny Desk. I hope you all might read our story about complete corruption in the music industry that has to do with TuneCore and Spotify. This is not just our story, this is happening to bands all over the world.
We have officially removed all of our music from every streaming platform due to @tunecore and @spotify illegally taking down much of our music with false claims of illegal streaming activity, and then charging us penalty fees for every song they remove. Well cannot afford for these massively corrupt companies to illegally penalize us anymore than they already have. This is why we made the hard decision to remove all of our music. I want to make it clear that this creates such a larger problem for us as a band than just being penalized. They forced us out of being able to provide our fans our music in the way most people listen to music now days. This also created a huge loss for us in how we are able to reach potential new fans across the world. I can’t begin to tell you how frustrated we are that this is happening to indie bands all over the world right now. It is absolutely criminal what these corporations are doing, and we hope that by offering our first record “I AM BECOME” on Vinyl for whatever price you want to pay for it on our official website that it will get this conversation going. Please help spread the word, please follow the link in our bio, go get our vinyl for whatever price you want to pay, and share our story. We are working on finish up our new album right now, and I can honestly say I am terrified thinking about how irrelevant our band is becoming by the day, due to not being on streaming platforms. How on earth will anyone listen to our new album when we release it? This is why I am asking you all to please go get our first record on our website at whatever price you want, share our story, and help sustain and build our fan base with us, grassroots style and word of mouth. We truly do love you all, and value the respect and love you have show our band over the years. Our story is not done, it is just beginning, and we cannot wait to show you all our new album. Until then, head to the link in our bio and get yourself our first record on limited edition transparent blue vinyl for whatever price you want!
Thank you for reading, I encourage other bands to leave comments below who have faced similar issues with streaming platforms.
- Ian Among Authors amongauthors.com
50
u/Crafty_Emphasis_7770 15d ago
Wow, glad I discovered you through this. Beautiful music and voice. Jeff Buckley on a piano. Will the vinyl ship to the UK?
17
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
Aww thank you for the kind words. Jeff Buckley was/still is an incredible artist, so it means a lot. We most definitely ship to UK, we ship all over the world!
3
35
u/upfromashes 15d ago
I'm planning to move to TIDAL.
Band perspective on that platform?
22
u/DJ_Ade_76 14d ago
Moved to Tidal from Spotify. It's pretty good. One of the better platforms.
10
3
u/MusicianMike805 13d ago
Tidal is great. I just wish they would implement an eq. Though a lot of the stuff there is master quality, I am listening on studio monitors and everything sounds kinda flat. Yes, F spotify.
1
u/frankieweed 13d ago
1
u/MusicianMike805 11d ago
I'm mac. =(
No worries though. I found a chrome plugin i can use if I use the web player.
1
u/DJ_Ade_76 11d ago
One thing that Spotify has that i miss when I quit it was the ability to continue listening from where you left off on another device. For example, I have a playlist playing from my phone in my car, i get to work and put it on my laptop, but it won't resume from where it was on my phone. Spotify did that and it was great, but would love Tidal to implement that.
21
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
I’m still trying to figure out what the best platform is as a listener, outside of Spotify. I’m not sure yet, I love Tidal’s fidelity and song credits, and there listen Live feature shows some promise, but they haven’t quite executed that feature properly yet in my opinion. Deezer isn’t bad either.
9
u/One-Adhesive 14d ago
Qobuz?
9
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
I actually know nothing about Qobuz, I’ll have to look into it further!
11
u/rebel_dean 14d ago
I really wanted to like Qobuz, because they do have a clear love of music. They regularly publish editorial content about music, have a download store, and are transparent about their streaming payouts.
Artists average out to around $.01873 per stream.
However, they were missing quite a few songs in my music library.
I moved to Apple Music.
10
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
Yeah that’s the problem, the main players just dominate the market so much that even if there is a better streaming service, those platforms usually just don’t have the library, which is so unfortunate. I think I still might check out Qobuz though, the editorial stuff sounds really interesting!
3
u/One-Adhesive 14d ago
Yeah I just started a 30 day free trial. I feel like I’m gonna give it a year. I also share a YouTube Music membership and I’m not afraid of buying physical media so some missing music probably won’t bother me.
3
3
14d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
4
u/IanKetterer 13d ago
This is such an insightful comment on the current status of Qobuz, I really appreciate it! Everything you mentioned has been my worry about that platform. But I might give it a go regardless just to try it out! Thanks for the comment!
3
3
u/boxed_knives 13d ago
Friendly notice that Qobuz allows you to request music that isn't in their library.
2
u/SilverSnapDragon 13d ago
What did you use to migrate your playlists? I’m in the middle of switching from Spotify to Apple Music and could really use one.
3
2
u/boxed_knives 13d ago
Friendly notice that Qobuz allows you to request music that isn't in their library.
9
2
u/Miffedy 12d ago
I just searched for you guys on Deezer and you’re not there… :(
1
u/IanKetterer 12d ago
Yeah we ended up taking down all of our music from every streaming platform, since Spotify kept flagging songs and TuneCore would then remove those songs from every platform. Our music is still up on Bandcamp currently though. amongauthors.bandcamp.com
2
1
u/upfromashes 14d ago
Cool. But/So, there aren't any horrid anti-artist practices that you're aware of off the bat? Good.
14
u/Post-Rock-Mickey 14d ago
I think it's gonna come full circle with piracy
3
u/Dampmaskin 13d ago
If you buy tickets to live shows, and physical copies of their albums, or just merch or whatever, you're still supporting the band even if you pirate the digital versions.
2
u/Aazimoxx 9d ago
Yep! Or just donate directly to them - any band which doesn't have crypto donation addresses on their website/profile is probably missing out. Make it easy for people to support you in their own way, it's a win-win 🤓
12
u/mcoollin 14d ago
Same thing happened to me this week. My music was falsely striken down and I got a fee. The fee was small, but now I am afraid that I might get blindsided for another. I have never marketed my music anywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up in some sort of class action lawsuit because i've been seeing it everywhere if you search the issue on reddit/online.
6
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
I’m so sorry this happened to as well. Unfortunately you very likely will be blindsided by more takedowns and fees. It is getting insane right now. We know multiple bands just in the Seattle area alone that have been affected by this.
12
u/ilikemarblestoo 14d ago
Meanwhile I have had 5 AI songs in my Discover Weekly this week. And I only listened to 9 songs so far lol
Wild future we are heading
7
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
Wow you have no idea how angry this makes me. I have an 18 month old daughter and whenever we play her kids songs on Alexa, it will always play AI kid songs unless we specify a specific artist.
3
u/Lost1nTheDream 14d ago
How could you tell they are AI? This is my big fear about my Discover Weekly.
11
u/ilikemarblestoo 14d ago
For most of them, you can kind of just tell by the words and structure of the song. It gets kind of samey. Like if they are singing a novel, it's probably AI lol.
If you are on the artists page and they just started to exist since 2024 and only have a few songs, that's a clue. Usually they will have AI art or an anime girl in the image. And then heck some in the description just flat out state that they are AI lol.
The website to make the music is free, you can make your own songs and kinda get a grip on what sounds AI. I messed around with it a few times when bored making dumb joke songs and whatnot.
The thing though is that it's always improving and it is getting harder to decipher lol
The first AI song I remember in my discover weekly was last October. I liked the song without realizing it on the first play that it was AI. Since then it's been between 0-2 a week. Usually 0 tbh. But this week for some reason it's slapped me hard and I don't know why. Hope it's not a trend and they really need to figure out a way to filter it out if someone doesn't want to listen to it.
3
u/benitoaramando 14d ago
Ugh, this is so depressing. It blows my mind that there are people already happy to consume largely AI-generated music (I realise there may be a place for heavily-prompted AI where the ideas all came from a human), especially music with vocals and intelligible lyrics.
1
u/ilikemarblestoo 13d ago
I found it fun to make personalized joke songs.
But to consume as an actual product is nonsense.
1
u/benitoaramando 13d ago
Oh yeah it's definitely fun for that. I wonder if the novelty of being able to make what sound like proper studio recordings but of silly songs about one's cat wll ever wear off?
11
u/Stife408 14d ago
I got an album taken down but didn’t get the penalty. It was absurd cause it was an album from years ago. They claimed the same illegal streaming but I have never done such a thing. Weird
6
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
Something really weird is going on right now. I have no idea what it is, but bands around the world are facing the same shit. I’m so sorry this has also happened to you!
8
u/DJ_Ade_76 14d ago
Spotify practices are horrible. So I stopped the subscription.
3
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
Yep, me as well. I am currently trying to figure out what streaming service is actually good. It comes down to so many factors, first is how much are they paying the artists, and then there is also how good is the UI and UX, and their algorithms for discovering new music.
4
u/Dry-Evening 14d ago
Tidal and Apple Music bro
3
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
I’m trying out Tidal and Deezer right now. Looking at trying out Qobuz as well.
2
1
u/NoRain286 8d ago
I have a lifetime sub so I really don't want to make the switch... :/ I wonder how much they can shittify it before I end up switching anyway. seems to be closer than i expected
20
u/Floschi123456 15d ago
Is this a Spotify Only problem? A lot of bands like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard among others, had their stuff ONLY removed from Spotify, but they are still for example on Apple Music, would this not be an alternative? For me Apple Music is becoming a more and more, albeit also flawed, alternative to the abysmal practices of Spotify...
21
u/RamBamTyfus 15d ago
That band removed their music because of some personal reason (their disliking in the CEO of Spotify, investing in AI drones used by the Ukrainians).
If a company known for their high profit margins and walled gardens is considered to be the most sincere choice, it tells a story about the state of music streaming apps in general.
I would rather go back to owning copies, having the security that the music will never be deleted or altered. Nowadays phones have enough storage space for a sizable music collection anyway. And the vast quantity offered by the streaming apps (including all the AI trash) somewhat downgrades the experience, I was more excited in the past owning just a single new CD because there was a sense of scarcity.
9
u/Floschi123456 15d ago
That is why I still hone my music collection, been collecting CDs for 25 years and not gonna stop. Stopped sailing the high seas almost a decade ago but if the entshitification of music streaming (or streaming in general) continues we will go full circle and will be back at massive torrenting and other forms of piracy...
2
u/JimmyNaNa 14d ago
Check out Plex if you haven't. There are others too. Basically make your own Spotify with a media server and audio files.
2
u/Ansible32 14d ago
Spotify doesn't have high profit margins. As a company they mostly break even.
1
u/beiherhund 13d ago
Aren't they talking about Apple having high profit margins and walled garden?
1
u/Ansible32 12d ago
Apple has a 25-30% profit margin. The app store profit margin is like 75% or 80%. If Spotify allowed payments through the Apple App Store they would definitely lose money since Apple takes a 30% cut and Spotify's profit margin is only 7% at best.
1
u/beiherhund 12d ago
What are you talking about? The person you replied to was hinting at a company with high profit margins, you said Spotify doesn't have high profit margins, I said they were probably talking about Apple, not Spotify. What does this have to do with the App Store?
1
u/muzik2020 14d ago
According to Variety, in 2024, Spotify posted net income of €1.138 billion.
According to Forbes, as of May 2025, Daniel Ek's net worth is $9.4 billion.→ More replies (14)3
u/BigBananaDealer 14d ago
i thought gizz were going to remove from all streaming and release solely on bandcamp
3
3
u/beiherhund 13d ago
Tbh they should, if you have a bone to pick with the ethics of one company, it's hard to see how Apple, Google, or Amazon are any better.
6
u/AlyVox 14d ago
Artist to artist, this is sickening. Im so sorry to hear! Keep fighting the fight!💜
2
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
I appreciate that, we live in such a terrible landscape for releasing music right now. What is your artist name?
3
u/AlyVox 14d ago
We truthfully do.. its really hard. Im actually from washington state myself. My Artist Name is AlyRhae
2
4
14d ago
Where can I read more about this? I’m missing details on what actually happened.
1
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
I wrote a statement on my band’s official website, explaining a bit more about what has happened to us specifically. But this is happening to thousands of bands all over the world right now. https://www.amongauthors.com
3
u/benitoaramando 14d ago
FFS, yet another reason to hate this company. I see you're on Bandcamp, I will check out your music there and purchase if I am into it. Meanwhile I will continue to try to muster the will to undertake exporting my library to a new service...
1
u/IanKetterer 13d ago
There are many apps and services that make the migration process to a different streaming service fairly seamless these days, so hopefully it won’t be too bad for you!
1
u/benitoaramando 13d ago
Yeah I have heard of some, it's just a case of finding the time! Fingers crossed!
7
u/ocashmanbrown 14d ago
Illegally taking down your music? I am curious how it’s illegal. Awful yes. But illegal?
6
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
Because they are charging us penalty fees they don’t have any legal right to charge us, because they are basing those fees on false accusations of illegal bot streaming activity. That is illegal.
→ More replies (6)6
u/covmatty1 14d ago
illegal bot streaming activity
What does this actually mean?
Are you saying they're accusing you of trying to artificially inflate your play counts by having bots stream your songs over and over?
What evidence did they actually give you of this?
1
u/iavsaIt 1d ago
They don't really need to present evidence of it, and its hard to pinpoint who's actually flagging it. I've seen messages from Distrokid that says Spotify alerted them to possibly fake streams, so Distrokid removes the music, but when people talk to Spotify they say it's Distrokid who's doing it. Either way they will never present any evidence. If it's Spotify's doing then reuploading on Tunecore or CD Baby wont help, and it definitely won't prevent it from happening again.
The only alert you get is a popup on Distrokid telling you that some songs have been removed because of potentially fake streams, they don't tell you what song, they don't tell you how many streams, they don't tell you that you can petition to have it double checked, nothing.There's nothing small artists can do about it
2
u/Pndrizzy 14d ago
Imagine if someone tried to login to your email address 1000 times, and then your email provider said "stop spamming our server. Your account is locked and you cannot access your email unless you pay us $20 in server fees."
2
u/ocashmanbrown 14d ago
Email providers don't charge you a fee just to unlock your account. They might lock it temporarily or require you to verify your identity, but they're not collecting money as a penalty. Your scenario would never happen.
Anyway, what's going on here is the band agreed to ToS, and Spotify/TuneCore are doing what the agreement says they can do. Both Spotify and TuneCore's rules let them remove content or charge fees if they think something shady is going on. They’re allowed to do it because you agreed to their terms when you signed up.
1
u/Pndrizzy 14d ago
Yes, they don't do that, because it would be illegal.
If this band really didn't game the system, and someone else did it to them, or it was misclassified, how is that okay? They are forcing them to either pay money or lose access to the platform, seemingly with no proof or no opportunity to fight it.
If what OP is saying is true, I can write a bot to kick my competition off of Spotify because they will be forced to pay money that they probably don't have or is not worth paying. That should not be allowed.
2
u/ocashmanbrown 14d ago
Detection algorithms look at patterns of plays, sources, locations, and other metrics. It is neither automated nor automatic. Bot activity would be flagged as suspicious, but reviewed by human beings before action was taken. It's not at all an instant, hands-off process. So, such a plan would almost certainly not kick a competitor off Spotify.
1
u/Pndrizzy 14d ago
So you're saying that it's only possible for people to bot plays for their own band and not others?
As someone who has a background in writing computer botnets ... just...no...
1
u/ocashmanbrown 14d ago
No. That isn't what I am saying at all. Reread what I wrote. Streams can be botted by anyone and for/against anyone, but that doesn't mean they will work as an attack. The systems are built to detect this kind of manipulation, regardless of who benefits. It doesn't translate to an automatic ban on the artist targeted.
Spotify's detection systems don't just look at raw play counts. They analyze account behavior, traffic sources, and statistical anomalies. When something looks off, Spotify doesn't instantly punish the artist. Most of the time the fake streams are stripped out, the suspicious accounts are banned, and the artist isn't penalized, especially if there's no evidence the artist paid for or orchestrated it. For harsher measures like withholding royalties or taking music down, Spotify usually wants a pattern of abuse tied to the artist, not just one wave of fishy traffic.
1
u/Aazimoxx 9d ago
If accounts are ever penalised for suspected bot activity (which seems to be the case, see the OP), then absolutely you can get a competitor penalised without them doing anything wrong. Just like a bad actor can sabotage a Facebook page by paying the scummiest sources out there to give them fake likes and shares, getting them restricted or even shut down by their algorithms... And for a platform with hundreds of millions of daily users, moderation action is taken 98% of the time without human intervention - and it can take weeks or even longer to get a pair of human eyeballs on it.
The other important point here is that it's trivial to make it impossible to determine the source of this action. The difference between '<artist> paid $x to <bot farm> to boost their streams' and '<competitor> paid $x to <bot farm> to get <artist> in trouble' is essentially nil. That's what Pndrizzy was pointing out.
1
u/ocashmanbrown 9d ago
You're right. The algorithms can't tell who's behind suspicious activity. But the system looks at consistent behavior over time, not just one suspicious wave of streams. Random attacks or short-term manipulation get filtered out without punishing the artist. Also, if an artist's account is at risk of takedown or heavy penalties, a real person reviews it. That's why bands rarely get permanently removed just because of one spike.
1
u/Aazimoxx 9d ago
Hey, I think you're probably correct in that assessment. Unfortunately if someone's willing to spend money on getting an artist yanked from a platform, there's no reason for them to stop at one 'wave'. 🫤
1
u/ocashmanbrown 9d ago
What's too bad is that OP's band isn't on a label. Usually labels have good relationships with their distributors. The label and the distributor would be able to work together to fix the issue with OP's band.
3
3
3
3
u/Symmetrial 6d ago
A favorite album by a deceased artist was recently removed. So sad. And for some reason (cost cutting?) the quality of music that I know to not be AI is sounding AI filtered on longer vocal notes and flattened and quality is lost. Don’t think I’m imagining it.
1
u/IanKetterer 2d ago
You’re not imagining things. It’s really sad what’s happening in the industry right now
5
u/andzlatin 14d ago
Spotify has been doing a LOT these last few weeks to help me to decide to move from Spotify Premium to a combination of YouTube, YouTube Music and Apple Music. I'm really considering doing that.
2
u/IanKetterer 13d ago
Yep same. Ignoring the fact that they are totally fucking over my band and thousands of other artists, as a listener I just can’t support their practices anymore. I am actively trying out multiple different streaming services to see which one I like best.
2
u/catucabogas 15d ago
hi! how does the shipping work?? after reading this post i looked for your album on youtube and was surprised to see that i really loved the music! i want to buy it but i’m not sure about the shipping, i live in Argentina btw!
2
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
Hey there! First off thank you for the kind words, and for even reading this long post in the first place! We happily ship all over the world!
2
u/catucabogas 14d ago
no worries!! that’s great btw, i’ll place my order as soon as i can, thank you for this!
2
2
2
u/snbcyjubuh 14d ago
Glad that I saw your post. I believe you guys gonna do well in future.
1
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
I very much appreciate the kind words, thank you! We’ll see, right now I have no clue how we should release our new album.
2
u/PatronBernard 14d ago
Fucking Spotify. It was never about the artists, just profits. This confirms it yet again. I have moved to Tidal instead. You don't have jams, multi-device playback sucks, but at least it's not Spotify.
2
2
u/Meluvdrums 14d ago
When ever a corporation in this case a Tech company begins to eat itself by taxing or trimming down it is a sure sign they are in their death throws and in panic mode.
Steaming has been on a steady decline in the last 3 years and most artist have been disappointed with their revenue shares on most of the platforms .
Now would be a good time for a platform to emerge made for musicians by musicians ..
1
2
u/joshypoika 14d ago
Same thing with two small bands I know of here in Alberta Canada. Music taken down because of “illegal streaming.” One of the artists just removed music from Spotify because of the drama.
1
u/IanKetterer 13d ago
Yep that’s exactly what we did. Spotify essentially forced our hand to take the rest of our music down. We couldn’t afford other potential songs being flagged and us being penalized either fees. It is terrible what is happening right now.
1
u/BackFromPurgatory 13d ago
Now you got me all nervous, also from Alberta, I have my music on Spotify as well. I wanna figure I'm too small for it to affect me (Think my highest played song on Spotify is like 4.5k), but the more I see of this stuff, the less sure I am about being safe from this kind of bullshit.
1
u/joshypoika 13d ago
I’ve got music on Spotify myself, but going to pull it. I don’t have many streams anyway so it’s not really doo g anything for me, plus now the moral dilemma of how bad Spotify is for artists in general. It’s like the Facebook of music.
2
u/denovoincipere 13d ago
So, hey, are there not any other distribution companies who won't do this shit?
Also, is there any suspicion that this is being promoted by labels to encourage bands to continue to use a label in an era that self distribution is obviously quite a bit easier than it used to be?
1
u/IanKetterer 13d ago
There are a number of other distributors, but it’s happening through multiple of them. Spotify is the one flagging songs in the first place, so the problem starts there. I’m doubting labels are doing it to make labels more relevant again, though I could be wrong. I’m fact, right now I wish our band was on a proper label that could help us weed through all of this shit. I believe two things could be happening, and both have to do with AI. I believe Spotify, TuneCore, and likely every other streaming platform and distributor are all using AI automated detection, which is likely failing hard right now. It’s likely that their AI system is wrongfully flagging thousands of bands, and then third party distributors AI systems are likely wrongfully taking down the music.
But then there is the more sinister reason, which I do believe has some credence, which is that Spotify is actively wrongfully flagging thousands of bands to kick them off their platform and eventually replace them with Spotify’s own AI generated music, so as to not have to pay royalties to real bands.
2
u/denovoincipere 13d ago
Thank you.
Sorry this is happening to you.
Fuck Spotify.
2
u/IanKetterer 13d ago
Of course! Thank you for caring enough to read and respond to this story, it helps spread the word on this bullshit.
2
u/-Clem-Fandango- 13d ago
While this sucks and spotify is a shit company, what they've done is not illegal, and you should remove that line when you post about it because it removes validity to what you're saying. They're a service who can dictate their terms, they may be shit terms, but i don't believe it's illegal.
2
u/IanKetterer 12d ago
When a company accuses you, the artist, of not streaming, and provides no proof, then takes your music down and also charges you fees, with no way to get a hold of them, and again with now proof… that sounds illegal to me.
1
u/-Clem-Fandango- 12d ago
You don't seem to understand what terms of services are or how law works. If it was illegal, you could simply file charges.
2
u/TheKro16 13d ago
Cam Pierce (campiercemusic) on IG said this the other week. You artists should definitely start linking up and organizing to make waves. I could see this becoming a class action lawsuit and if enough of you band together, the attention it could get is massive. I am pulling for you and the other artists not in the mainstream. These streaming corporations AND record conglomerates are evil and corrupt af. They will replace you with whatever technology they see fit.
2
u/IanKetterer 12d ago
Thank you! Yes we are in talks with multiple other bands just from our city of Seattle alone, let alone the thousands of artists around the world that this is happening to!
2
u/TheKro16 12d ago
I wish you the best of luck. I do what I can to share music of real musicians who do not have the mammoth machine behind them. I will always choose people.
2
2
u/MaceTheMindSculptor 13d ago
I fucking hate the streaming world and I fucking hate Live Nation!!!!
The CEO of Spotify makes more money than any musician ever has or ever will. Absolute robbery. He offers nothing to the music world in his current form.
Keep on pushing!!! I will tell this story. I will help spread the word
1
u/IanKetterer 12d ago
Thank you thank you for your support and helping get the word out! I hope artists around the world start talking about this more and more and take whatever action they feel is necessary for their art.
2
u/DeltaT01 13d ago
fuckass tunecore at it again. when i tried to publish through them, they removed my music and when i asked them why they said they won't tell me. i think that's bullshit. i switched to distrokid since then
1
u/IanKetterer 13d ago
Yeah they are running a real shady business over there. I don’t know how a company can get away with their practices.
2
u/oneflashoflight 13d ago
They’re making room in the cloud for “artists” with more plays AND they use AI algorithms which go unmonitored and unresolved UNLESS it affects Taylor Swift.
As a former “indie” artist from the mid-late 90’s, touring with many of what the kids now call classic bands, this is similar to how Clear Channel Communications made sure that you ONLY heard Nickleback, Three Doors Down, and Limp Bizkit, etc…every hour on the hour on the radio.
With friends still in the industry, getting new artists promoted/suggested on that platform IS NOT free. Payola is real and society is to blame. They’ll pay $8 for each draft beer and $15 per cocktail but expect art at a discount if not free. Blame Napster. Then there’s the Live Nation and Ticketmaster monopolies. Good luck but please do have a backup plan. Entering the corporate world at 30 after 13 years of trying to make it as an artist...sucks 🤪
1
u/IanKetterer 13d ago
Yep, I totally agree with everything you said. The corporate world is terrible. I actually do QA work, sound design, and composition work as side jobs to support my band until just the band is enough to support my family. And with the way the music industry is now, I’m thinking I’ll be very wealthy making music in no time at all haha (says with a sarcastic, sad, uncertain look on his face).
Don’t let the corporate lose your creative brain, keep making music regardless of how much it pays. It will pay you back with happiness.
I appreciate the comment!
2
u/oneflashoflight 13d ago edited 13d ago
Oh for sure! I still make music that nobody gives a $hit about constantly whilst Fake-Pop, garbage rap and bubblegum everything rule. PuhLENTY of us old kicked-about cans in NYC 🤪 Again, society in this regard for sure, is long over. Be pop culture or be cast out. Go viral or go home. Pathetic.
I wish you the best but AI is soon to replace what you do as a side job. Said friends are already using “producers” & “writers” who utilise it until the machine runs itself and then they’re gone to. Management companies drop artists if they don’t reach major specific goals in two years and they generally have to pay $$ back like record labels do (when we pay Spotify to push and you don’t get plays you’re in debt).
The entire world was warned decades ago. Welcome….to the machine.
If you have yet to, watch Hitmakers on Netflix. Make sure there are no life ending objects around and have a full bottle or whatever numbs you. JFC 🤦♂️🤬👎
1
u/IanKetterer 12d ago
Haha you’re not wrong. And I actually just finished hitmakers! I’m just focusing on getting this new album done, and our live show at expert level. Live is one place AI can’t touch….. yet…..
2
2
u/mfmeitbual 13d ago
This screams of incompetent execs trying to pad numbers for their next quarterly bonus.
Private equity ruins everything. Everything.
1
2
u/justaguytrying2getby 13d ago
Check out Bandcamp. You can do that separately from all other platforms, no distributor needed. Its very consumer and artist friendly. Gives you an option for continuing to release digital music.
3
u/IanKetterer 13d ago
Yeah we love Bandcamp, they just don’t have a great streaming platform. But we are definitely still on Bandcamp, they’ve always been champions of artists.
2
u/justaguytrying2getby 12d ago
Ah I getcha, yeah the streaming part will be difficult to do. Most people probably use Apple Music or Spotify. If you own your ISRCs you could switch distributors and keep your metadata. I don't think the Tunecore issues transfer to other distributors (not sure though), I haven't got to that point yet.
Tunecore has a permanent "flag" on my account due to illegal streaming on Spotify. Spotify is such a pos. Happened to me last year, got added to a bot playlist without my consent or involvement. And I reported it to Spotify and Tunecore, but in turn they flagged my account, haha. The music industry is ridiculous. Fortunately the only thing that occurred with the flag is I am no longer allowed to do splits with my collaborator.
2
u/IanKetterer 12d ago
Wow so crazy! Man it is such a shame what’s happening right now in the industry. I’m sorry you too are going through this crap.
2
u/Zendomanium 12d ago
Just a heads up to people reading who, like me, went straight to their BandCamp page without finishing the article: the Pay What You Want version is at amonauthors.com and NOT through their BC page. Great deal!
1
u/IanKetterer 12d ago
Yes sorry for the confusion! We wanted it to be focused, with a message explaining why we’re doing it, which is why we did it through our own website rather than Bandcamp. https://www.amongauthors.com
2
u/TherealJefferyPaul 12d ago
Spotify is stealing thousands from artists while we allow it. The streaming model must change. Until major artists pull from their platform and endorse or start a fairer revenue distribution it will never change. All the small indie bands in the world cannot incite change without the superstars joining in. They suck.
1
u/IanKetterer 12d ago
Yes this is very true. Big names need to start removing their music as well. Unfortunately I just don’t think they will, and/or don’t even have a choice in the matter.
2
u/Ok_Medicine7534 12d ago
Same thing is happening to me…
Get one warning of fake streaming (didn’t even know what that was!!)
Try to contact Tunecore- NOTHING! No response or information
Get a bill for 15$…
That’s it………..
2
u/IanKetterer 12d ago
Yep sounds very familiar. I honestly don't know how TuneCore is a business anymore.
2
2
u/DangReadingRabbit 9d ago edited 9d ago
Switch distributors and release on platforms other than than Spotify. YouTube Music, Deezer, Tribal, even Apple. Then see how it goes. You can still go to physical media too, and use a company that does on-demand vinyl (like Elastic).
You should also contact an attorney to fight the penalties. If you absolutely did no shady promotion, then they need to go after the bot farms and playlist curators, not you. You should also contact and/or check out Top Music Attorney on YouTube.
Sorry all this happened to you… Spotify (and some distributors) are really going after the wrong people to target musicians that do nothing wrong. We’ve had our music put on botted playlists against our will and it’s annoying AF… and more importantly, there’s nothing we can do about it but stay diligent and report it. I know there are ways Spotify could police it better on their side, and targeting innocent musicians rather than the guilty playlist creators is just wrong.
1
u/ocashmanbrown 14d ago
Why isn’t your label helping you?
4
u/IanKetterer 14d ago
We are fully independent from any label.
3
u/ocashmanbrown 14d ago
That's too bad. A label would have the leverage to challenge false takedowns, cover fees, and help keep your music visible.
3
u/Rep_One 14d ago
Aa a listener I left Spotify a month ago.
I did some extensive research on which platform to use and this is my tl;dr:
Qobuz: top sound quality, pay the artists the most
Tidal: top sound quality, pay the artists almost the same. Jack Dorsey is the ceo which sounds good to me, but I don't like Jay Z in the board
Deezer: the closest thing you have from Spotify, pays artists a bit better tho, and heavy emphasis in purging their pool from AI (they have an AI chasing and downing/demonetizing AI tracks lol)
1
u/quinacridone-blue 14d ago
Thanks for this. I recently ended my subscription with Spotify, but have had a hard time finding a new platform. These look promising. I want a platform that will push me lots of indie artists. When I find an artist I love, I tend to buy their physical media as much as I can to support them. With spotify i was getting so tired of dodging their ai garbage. It became unusable. Deezer sounds promising.
2
1
u/Hefty_Respect_7702 14d ago
Greetings, we invite you to listen to our song
https://open.spotify.com/album/3glTWtRxElDqK274HX6rNG?si=FdkDvWMDRWGGz9QHnYSgkw
1
u/Low-Ad-6699 13d ago
I had the same problem with my band, after mails and articles we solved the problem. This is crazy! We have Bandcamp, but sadly 80% of our listeners are on Spotify. My music distributor is Awal
1
u/Aazimoxx 9d ago
The useful facts missing from the OP (had to be found in comment replies or their website message):
- Spotify's algorithms detected what they thought to be inflated/fake stream requests for a third of this artist's song catalog (which means half a cent to the artist for each of these on a good day)
- After Spotify flagged those songs for removal due to this claimed 'illegal bot streaming activity', the artist's distributor TuneCore removed those songs from every streaming platform
- TuneCore (not Spotify) then charged the artist penalties/fees for enacting the removal
- The artist then removed the rest of their catalog from all streaming services.
Hope that helps clarify things. 🤓
1
u/3142536464 1d ago
got the same message after one song got on an bot playlist. Just checked it on spotify and you can report this playlist. Maybe that could help keep your stuff on there.
1
u/Cheap-Passenger3956 1d ago
Let’s do L4L! remember to listen for 30 sec minimum for counting as a real listener !❤️ https://open.spotify.com/track/0k2grpX1H9Gn4YyK42NOeJ?si=U3lduDhmSMiXE10XCgS2sg
128
u/Melodic_Anteater6580 15d ago
Wow, that really really stinks. Your music is sophisticated, tells stories, and is the exact opposite of the AI slop they seem to be okay with.