Billy Bragg Throws Support Behind Spotify

Acclaimed musician Billy Bragg has thrown his support behind Spotify's latest move to reveal artist royalties to the public.

Bragg praised the new Spotify Artists website in a post on his Facebook overnight, calling the organisation a “shining light onto years of shady practices by major record labels”.

“The key to understanding why some artists feel that Spotify do not pay enough for their music can be found in the section labeled 'Royalties: in detail'. Here you can see that Spotify pays 70% of the money it receives to rights holders - aka record labels and publishers,” Bragg explained.

“This year, by their own estimates, they've paid over US $350 million to rights holders. The labels and publishers must be really pleased. So why are artists not sharing in this bonanza? The problem is right there in detail no4:

"Once Spotify has paid a rights owner the total royalties due for their accumulated streams, that label or publisher pays each artist according to that artist's contractual royalty rates."

You can read the full post here.

The new website, launched this week, offers an insight into the Spotify business model, providing a comprehensive look into royalties, its impact on piracy and the company's progress so far.

The business has come under fire in the past particularly from musicians for how little artists are claimed to get out of the service. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and collaborator Nigel Godrich vented their frustration towards Spotify back in July and ultimately pulled all of their music from the streaming site.

In other Spotify news, the most streamed artists of 2013 have been revealed. Future-bound Macklemore & Lewis have been the most streamed artist of the year and their song Can't Hold Us the most streamed track from the past twelve months.

On the local front, Daft Punk were the most streamed artist in Australia and recent ARIA winner Flume was the most streamed Aussie artist of 2013. It girl Lorde was the most streamed female act locally and was also crowned most viral new artist of the year.