This blog’s problem with streaming is, quite simply, this isn’t how it was meant to be. Streaming was supposed to be help make music more democratic and give everyone an equal chance of being discovered – whether you were signed to a label or not.

And it was also supposed to pay a fair rate to the artists, because without their music on these platforms, they would be nothing. After all, a music streaming service with no music is about as useful as a pub with no drink on sale.

Daniel Ek might even have had visions of this back in the day. But the moment the majors heard about this, they collectively spat out their cornflakes. And after composing themselves, they set out to purchase shares in Spotify and ensured they had higher royalty payments than anyone else.

Hence why the majority of your Spotify subscription does not go to the artists you listen to. Instead, the vast bulk goes to its biggest artists – Drake, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and so on, whether you listen to their music or not. It’s a dreadful system which benefits majors – who make £1million every hour on the service.

It’s not even a particularly good deal to Spotify, who remain so woefully incompetent they haven’t made a penny in profit during their 15 years in existence. But it’s an even worse deal for artists, who get around $0.038 each time their song is played – and when you even get paid that is a mystery, so complex is this whole web.

So it’s no mystery that Scott Diaz has had enough of this charade. Here’s what he said yesterday as he announces his catalogue – bar remixes and possibly one or two vocal collaborations – was coming off the streaming services…

I personally have to wonder why anyone would want to waste their time with streaming services. Because unless you’re a huge artist or someone like Ross Couch – who only releases his own music and his own label, thus ensuring he gets everything after Spotify’s cut – it just doesn’t look like it’s worth the hassle.

Oh, and a word to anyone who’s under the impression DJ Sneak took his music off the download and streaming platforms after saying he would – well, he hasn’t. Infact, the number of records he has on Traxsource has gone UP since January, not down…

By The Editor

Editor-in-chief at Amateur’s House.