Facing The Music

Earlier this month, days after Trevor Noah skewered Spotify for ripping off artists at the Grammys ("TikTok, shame on you ripping off all these artists. Shame on you! How dare you do that! That’s Spotify’s job!”), the world's largest streaming music provider shared that it paid out $9b in royalties in the previous twelve months and that annual payouts have nearly tripled in the past six years.

And today, founder Daniel Ek took to X/Twitter to further break down that $9b figure, revealing that $4b was generated by independent artists.

Both positive announcements, and both big numbers.

There is no denying that Spotify, and with it Apple and Amazon, is an enormous contributors to the health of the global recorded music industry.

But looking at those numbers at a local level, there is one number that I would love to understand - specifically, of royalties attributed to the Australian market, what percentage of those were attributed to Australian artists?

With our music consumption now being near-exclusively digital, and the impact of radio in breaking new artists declining, the Australian music industry is facing an existential crisis.

How do we break and develop the careers of the next generation of Australian songwriters and performers, and with it support local music.

And what role should the streamers play in ensuring Australian voices are heard?

I spoke to somebody yesterday who said that while it was extremely unlikely, it wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility for the major labels to one day close their local artist departments. That the challenges of breaking new artists in a world of endless international possibilities were becoming almost insurmountable.

ARIA and APRA/AMCOS are fighting the good fight, but what more can be done?

Should the industry be lobbying for content quotas and prominence legislation, similar to that which the local television and production communities have been pushing for when dealing with the likes of Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon?

Should there be stronger subsidies, rebate and offset programs at to support the creation of Australian music for local and international audiences, again in keeping with programs secured by the local film and television industry?

Should there be a requirement for all international artists to tour with a local act in support? Imagine the platform that the recent Taylor Swift and Blink-182 concerts would have provided to a new and developing Australian artist.

We're seeing now what the market will deliver when left to its own devices.

This week, there is one Australian album in the ARIA Top 50 Albums Chart and one Australian single in the ARIA Top 50 Singles Charts.

Perhaps it is time for some of our best and brightest (and loudest) voices in media and entertainment journalism to turn back to the music industry and ensure this conversation is being supported at every level.