Sewerslvt vs. Spotify

2020-08-23 by step aside Charli XCX there is a new phrase and its Magdalena Bay Fall. ?Imaginal Disk? is the sophomore record from duo Magdalena Bay STAFF | 36 Comments
The atmospheric drum and bass project Sewerslvt has released a video message requesting all fans to avoid streaming its music on Spotify, or related services. Fans are encouraged to buy the music directly on Bandcamp instead. This seems to follow their distributor, Ditto Music, taking measures to the effect that Sewerslvt no longer has any control over their account, while their music remains on Spotify under Ditto's license. Ditto Music has a record of dubious service and locking artists out of their accounts.

Distributors are an essential service for all artists whose music is not already available on Spotify (i.e. anyone not already signed to a record label). Spotify's Spotify for Artists service supposedly guarantees artist autonomy, but it usually requires an artist to be invited in by their distributor or label, leaving musicians vulnerable to distributors who do not include this as part of their service.

You can read/watch Sewerslvt's video letter here:

Tagged: Sewerslvt

Comments:Add a Comment 
JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
August 23rd 2020
62343 Comments


tl;dr Spotify's service model disadvantages small artists and only works as a viable financial support to artists whose work would be lucrative under any circumstances [123]

plus their library is a joke

Get Low
August 23rd 2020
14553 Comments


Lets blame streaming services for record labels being shitty haha yeah

Edit: music distributors / record labels, same drift

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
August 23rd 2020
62343 Comments


distributors are C-tier label supplements for unsigned artists, not record labels, and the spotify model literally demanded their rise to prominence

DarkNoctus
August 23rd 2020
12357 Comments


"Lets blame streaming services for record labels being shitty haha yeah"


^the fuck are you talking about? this has nothing to do with a record label. read the article before commenting.

i hope that this dude is able to sort their stuff out with ditto - they seem legit on the surface so one can only hope this is some sort of admin error but not responding is dubious as fuck and continuing to make royalties on suspended accounts is sketchy as shit. this is certainly a bigger issue than just this individual creator.

this, however, isn't the fault of spotify. i don't particularly like spotify and frankly i make more from bandcamp in a week than i do from spotify in a year but i put my music where my fans want it.

Jasdevi087
August 23rd 2020
8164 Comments


spotify are, when you get down to it, more of an IT company than a music one, and it's just not designed (through willful ignorance or otherwise) to take these kind of things into account unfortunately

DarkNoctus
August 23rd 2020
12357 Comments


yeah i doubt spotify would want to get involved in disputes between artists and distributors when they could just as easily put their hands over their ears and just let them fight between each other. fans are none the wiser.

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
August 23rd 2020
62343 Comments


Agreed with Jas, on which basis it's less to do with this being Spotify's 'fault' and more whether you accept their service as an adequate playing field

Valzentia
August 23rd 2020
1470 Comments


"tl;dr Spotify's service model disadvantages small artists and only works as a viable financial support to artists whose work would be lucrative under any circumstances"
This isn't a Spotify issue this time though, it's a distributor issue

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
August 23rd 2020
62343 Comments


false dichotomy. the distributor is the #guiltyparty for sure, but their service (whether shoddy or crooked) is solicited by Spotify and necessitated by their library model

Lord(e)Po)))ts
August 23rd 2020
70256 Comments


"only works as a viable financial support to artists whose work would be lucrative under any circumstances [123]"

Demonstrably false as evidenced by obscure beat makers on high profile beat playlists

Emim
August 23rd 2020
36054 Comments


brb gonna stream their entire discography to see if I care

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
August 23rd 2020
62343 Comments


Fair point Pots - overlooked Spotify playlists because I never listen to them, but ofc there's opportunities to be had there

I'd be curious to know more about the distributors these artists use and what kind of returns they expect (in $$, not recognition and promotion)

Sinternet
Contributing Reviewer
August 23rd 2020
26767 Comments


most distributors take either a flat annual fee or a small fee per track/album and many often have added stuff involved such as rights management. they usually don't take percentage cuts like labels do and are banking on having as many users as possible rather than catering to performance-based revenue. this one i've never heard of, which is usually a sign it's sketch as fuck, but this isn't a spotify problem in the sense that the only other way to get music onto spotify is through a label who will also manage your account. essentially the distributor is just handling the reproductive and physical rights. if anyone could just upload whatever to spotify at any point it would be a complete spamfest and creating this fairly easy to overcome barrier removes a lot of the low-level QC work on spotify's end. this is only really an issue about checking what your distributor is doing and researching beforehand, most everyone i work with who makes music usually uses distrokid because it's cheap and by all accounts i've seen very reliable - or simply the few complaints i see people put up about them scream user error who doesn't understand what they're doing

Lord(e)Po)))ts
August 23rd 2020
70256 Comments


@Johnny my one buddy has made as much as 12000 in a month from being on spotify hip hop playlists and my other buddy at least makes enough to pay his rent every month just by being on those playlists too! The former buddy is able to just make beats full time because of this and for the latter buddy that's still not a bad side hustle!

DominionMM1
August 23rd 2020
21282 Comments


damn i thought even big artists made next to nothing from spotify

Supercoolguy64
August 23rd 2020
11850 Comments


streaming sucks dick. actually own/buy your music

bloc
August 23rd 2020
70683 Comments


Draining Love Story is excellent. Still gonna stream on Spotify though, don't really have a choice sorry.

Jasdevi087
August 23rd 2020
8164 Comments


if someone gun to my head told me to stream on bandcamp, tell my family i loved then

LeddSledd
August 23rd 2020
7445 Comments


yep, same here dawg. im str8 broke as it is, every penny counts

Asdfp277
August 23rd 2020
24791 Comments


"streaming sucks dick. actually own/buy your music"

i own my music but idk, i might try spotify soon

also, didn't the flashbulb also have an issue with spotify? or was it apple music?

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
August 23rd 2020
62343 Comments


@Pots hot damn dude, respect to your pals - didn't realise those playlists translated so directly into pocket (assumed they were most powerful as a promotional opening for signings/bookings/features elsewhere)! I guess I'm due a reevaluate on what Spotify can do for a start-up musician

oltnabrick
August 23rd 2020
40765 Comments


"plus their library is a joke"


what

Dewinged
Staff Reviewer
August 23rd 2020
32179 Comments


I've been using Spotify for some months and I'm pretty happy with it. As a musician, my stuff is there but I am not as wealthy as Pots' pals (lol). The service makes possible for an absolute nobody like me to reach millions of people so I guess it's not so bad? Limiting to it might be the problem, there are plenty of other services and ways to distribute your music yourself and one should covet them all!

Demon of the Fall
August 23rd 2020
35524 Comments


Spotify’s convenience allows me to (very lazily) hear loads of stuff I otherwise wouldn’t get around to. It would be a shame if it isn’t helping artists because now I’ve started I don’t see myself stopping - as selfish as that is. I used to buy EVERYTHING, but that wasn’t realistically sustainable.

A lot of people massively into streaming services still buy physicals/go to gigs etc. So even if artists don’t make much I hope it at least has beneficial ‘knock-on effects’.

TheGreatQ
August 23rd 2020
3013 Comments


streaming sucks dick. actually own/buy your music [2]

Deathconscious
August 23rd 2020
27459 Comments


@get low

"Every artist has the choice to remain independent. These guys didn't and now they're facing the consequences."

- Get Low's take on Dragged Into Sunlight being ripped off by their label

and now this. youve got some weird takes, man.

Get Low
August 23rd 2020
14553 Comments


i guess

deathofasalesman
August 24th 2020
8641 Comments


should've just used distrokid

cold
August 24th 2020
6735 Comments


"streaming sucks dick. actually own/buy your music"

you can do both

ReiniEden
August 24th 2020
261 Comments


Sewerslvt ew

Sevengill
August 24th 2020
12483 Comments


streaming sucks dick. actually own/buy your music [3]

tcat84
August 25th 2020
1341 Comments


Why don't a bunch of big artists get together and pull their music from the streaming sites? They could at least demand a higher $/listen. It's pretty sad it's a fraction of a penny per song or some shit

Sinternet
Contributing Reviewer
August 25th 2020
26767 Comments


i'm sure their labels would be right happy to throw away all the revenue they make by doing nothing

anat
Contributing Reviewer
August 25th 2020
5830 Comments


So all you've got to do is make playlist-ready music and you too can make 12000 a month!

iambandersnatch
August 26th 2020
1935 Comments


Some really bizarre takes here, first the comment about spotify's library sucking dick (sure they don't have absolutely everything, but saying it's bad is just ridiculous), then the people trying to blame spotify for this situation

Like hey enjoy your drugs but maybe don't make comments here under the influence

TheDudeShreds
August 27th 2020
14 Comments


streaming sucks dick. actually own/buy your music [4]



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