Spotify Launches Website To Explain How It Pays Musicians

Under frequent criticism for exploiting artists, Spotify has launched a new website called Loud & Clear to better explain how it pays musicians – or in fact, how it doesn’t, not directly anyway.

Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said the website is intended to “increase transparency and shed light on the complicated economics of music streaming.”

He claimed that, last year alone, Spotify paid over US$5 billion (~RM20.5 billion) in royalties and makes up about 20% of global recorded music industry revenue – more than any other streaming service.

Where does all that money go?

The website and nifty accompanying video makes it very clear that Spotify doesn’t hand money directly to artists, but rather to rights holders like record labels, distributors, aggregators, and collecting societies.

Spotify explained that it makes agreements with those right holders and pays them roughly two-thirds of the revenue it gets from subscriptions and advertising. Then the right holders will pay artists according to their contracts.

It sure looks like Spotify is saying, don’t blame us, go blame greedy record companies instead – an argument that has so far failed to convince many irate artists.

On Monday, artists and other music workers protested at Spotify offices around the world under a campaign organised by the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW), Pitchfork reported.

Spotify was recently in the news due to a brief licensing breakdown with Korean music distributor Kakao, which caused K-pop songs to be temporarily yanked from the platform. Whether that confirms the case made by Spotify or its critics is hard to say.

Google Doodle Pays Tribute To Malaysian Doctor Who Invented The Modern Surgical Mask

Google commonly has Doodles to mark various different occasions. Today, it commemorates the 142th birthday of Dr Wu Lien-Teh. And it’s definitely a fitting one for the climate that we’re in right now. This is because the doctor invented the modern day surgical mask that we now use daily.

Dr Wu was born to a family of Chinese immigrants in Penang back in 1879. His great medical contribution would come years later, while he is vice director of China’s Imperial Army Medical College. In 1910, he was ordered to investigate the Manchurian plague of northwestern China in 1910. He would then identify it as the pneumonic plague, which spread through respiratory transmission.

To fight the disease, Dr Wu invented the surgical mask we all know today, with cotton and gauze plus a few layers of cloth to act as filters. With the addition of other measures like establishing quarantine stations and travel restrictions, he helped put an end to the plague by April 1911.

This Google Doodle comes just about a year after the tribute to Dr Ignaz Semmelweis, the father of hand hygiene. Both are still immensely relevant, with the COVID-19 pandemic still being the threat that it is. So remember to wash your hands regularly, and don’t forget your mask.