Spotify has recently announced that it will no longer offer payouts for songs with fewer than 1,000 plays. This new streaming payment policy has raised concerns among smaller artists who will no longer receive any payment for their music on the platform.
Spotify claims that this change is aimed at eliminating fraud, as some artists try to “game the system” by posting a high volume of tracks that generate small amounts of money over time. However, this move has been criticized for disadvantaging smaller artists who may not have a large following or reach the minimum play count requirement.
In addition to the no-payout policy for low-played songs, Spotify is also cutting payments for “noise” content, such as recordings of rain or other relaxing sounds. Only noise recordings below two (2) minutes in length will be affected, and the company is planning to adjust the royalty scheme for these types of recordings, making the payouts much lower than for actual songs.
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Spotify said that these cuts will eventually result in an additional $1 billion being distributed to artists over the next five (5) years. However, the streaming platform has not provided specific details on how these funds will be redistributed.
It is worth noting that Spotify has been criticized in the past for underpaying artists, and this new policy seems to further disadvantage smaller artists in favor of established ones. Artists with less than 1,000 streams in the last 28 days are not even able to participate in Spotify’s marketing toolset that allows artists to pay for placement and highlight on home feeds.
Overall, Spotify’s new streaming payment policy has sparked controversy and raised concerns about the treatment of smaller artists on the platform. While Spotify claims that this change is aimed at eliminating fraudulent schemes, it remains to be seen how it will impact the music industry and the livelihoods of artists who rely on streaming platforms for their income.