Jimmy Page is using his status as a rock icon and a knighted Order of the British Empire to urge streaming companies to fairly compensate musicians.
The legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist penned an open letter on his Instagram account in response to a recent inquiry into streaming services by the UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Among the items the committee is reviewing is the business model employed by Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Google and other streaming services, especially when it comes to artist royalties.
Page shared the following letter on his Instagram page:
“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, and to pay fair royalties to those who give us great pleasure from those who are exploiting it, the better.
Jimmy Page OBE”
In a recent survey by the Ivors Academy, the UK equivalent of the Recording Academy in the United States, 82% of musicians reported that they earned less than £200 ($267) per year from streaming services. Furthermore, 92% of musicians divulged that less than 5% of their income came from streaming platforms.
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Earlier this year, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek received massive backlash after he suggested that artists need to constantly put out new music in order to receive more compensation from streaming companies, “You can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough,” he said.
That statement was met with vitriol by dozens of musicians, including R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, who told Ek to “go f**k yourself.”
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor has also been outspoken about low streaming royalty rates paid to musicians, tweeting in 2019, “I don’t care HOW people get the music. I care how the COMPANIES who provide it compensate the f**kin’ people who made it in the first place.”
See Jimmy Page’s Instagram post below:
