Singer Indie Arie’s protest against Spotify in 2022 which led to her decision to pull her music off the platform, has resulted in an increase of artiste’s pay on the platform.
Last year, the singer pulled her music from Spotify when the streaming platform signed a multi-million-dollar deal with politics and culture presenter, Joe Rogan whilst it still paid artistes such as herself pennies.
The 47-year-old neo-soul singer revealed that record labels are in bed with Spotify on the issue hence did not speak up. Her action, she said, was to encourage artistes of colour to do so, and to also bar the use of offensive and racist languages like nigger on the platform.
Her protest has resulted in Spotify’s pledge to invest $100 million into podcasters of colour, “change their terms and conditions, took down upwards of 70 episodes of Rogan’s podcast, and will increase artists’ payouts by 15 per cent each, for the next five years – resulting in an overall 75 per cent increase.”
Arie said: “After a successful protest, my music is back up on Spotify. Also, I must say all the media outlets and even ‘friends’ who talked about me, let’s see if you care Now that my stance impacted change.
“I stood up for me, and it worked. Protecting my peace in 2023. People thought it was a public battle with Joe Rogan but it wasn’t. it was with Spotify because it is the company that exploits all our copyrights. I feel like I am ready to put my music back up because I want my money. I mean I deserve my money, but of course, I want it too,” the singer explained on her Instagram page.
