- Music
- 10 Dec 20
It was revealed this week in the UK that 82% of musicians earn less than £200 (€220) per year from streaming services.
Jimmy Page has called for artists to receive fairer payments from streaming services.
On Instagram, Page posted a letter that reads: “Having recently viewed the Select Committee for Music Streaming on 24 November 2020 I feel compelled to write this letter.
“I fully appreciate the dilemma surrounding streaming royalties that should be rightfully paid to all musicians and writers who made the music.
“The sooner the streaming companies can make fair payments to all musicians whose music is played on or viewed via the internet," he continued, "and to pay fair royalties to those who give us great pleasure from those who are exploiting it, the better.”
View this post on Instagram
Page is joining a consistently growing list of artists who have been criticising the way streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify have been paying the artists.
Advertisement
These comments come during an inquiry from the British government into the economic impact of streaming service business models operated by Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Google Play.
Musicians including Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, Elbow’s Guy Garvey, Nadine Shah and Gomez‘s Tom Gray told MPs on the DCMS committee that streaming payments are “threatening the future of music”.
I the UK, Fiona Bevan, a songwriter for One Direction, Lewis Capaldi to name a small few, revealed that she earned just £100 (about €110) from streaming for a song she co-wrote on Kylie Minogue‘s new album Disco, also saying: “The most successful songwriters in the world can’t pay their rent.”