Songwriters nominated for Songwriter of the Year at the 2025 Grammy Awards will be skipping Spotify’s Grammy party celebrating songwriters, with some citing the platform’s controversial royalty policy as the reason for their absence.
Four out of the five nominees for Songwriter of the Year — Jessi Alexander, Amy Allen, Jessie Jo Dillon, and RAYE — won’t attend the Spotify event, with Dillon and Allen confirming to Billboard that they made the decision in light of the change to Spotify’s subscription tiers last year bundling audiobooks with premium, which is expected to result in a $150 million decrease in songwriters’ payout in its first 12 months.
Dillon — who is nominated for Songwriter of the Year for the second year in a row thanks to writing credits with Post Malone, Morgan Wallen, Megan Moroney, and more — told Billboard, “After some thought, I couldn’t in good conscience support this initiative given their approach to bundling royalties. It is very nice to be individually honored, but it is better for me and my entire songwriter community to be paid fairly for our art. There are no songs without songwriters.”
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Likewise, representatives for Allen said she was forgoing because of the royalty cut. A rep for RAYE (also nominated for Best New Artist), said she never committed to the party in the first place, but described her as an “outspoken advocate” for an “industry-wide dialogue” about songwriters’ rights. Alexander, meanwhile, did not provide a reason for skipping the event, but confirmed she would not be there.
Spotify has never been too popular with musicians, but the boycott of their Grammy party comes at a time of rising dissatisfaction. In October, Lily Allen revealed that she was making more money from feet pics on OnlyFans than Spotify, even with eight million monthly listeners, and 2023 Grammy nominee for Songwriter of the Year, Laura Veltz, said of the recent royalty cut in an Instagram story, “Spotify is robbing you. Songwriters: do not fall for this horse shit.”
Meanwhile, Spotify itself saw record-high profits in 2024, and CEO Daniel Ek is currently earning far more than even the highest-streamed artists on the platform. To boot, a report alleged this past December that they are even filling playlists with ghost artists to minimize royalty costs.
