Jimmy Buffett voiced his belief that artists should be making more money from digital streaming services. At the inaugural Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit, Buffett took the microphone to ask speaker Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, for more money.
“We’re at the end of the pipeline,” Buffett stated. “When money goes to the label in a stream, it trickles to the artist. Do you see anything in the future where we might get a raise from you instead of going through the bull — you have to with the labels these days? How the stream of revenue gets to the artist, particularly young struggling artists, it’s really hard for that to actually happen in real life if you’re a young artist. So I’d hope that all the music service groups would kind of look at that. It’s one thing when it goes to the record label. Most of it doesn’t get to the artist, which would be nice.”
Ek agreed with Buffett’s statement and explained that Spotify is paying more than $1 billion annually anf pays 70 percent of every dollar to its rights holders.
“But it’s actually still lower than what we used to get — right, Irving?” Buffett asked the panel’s moderator, Irving Azoff, owner of Azoff MSG entertainment. “That’s why I’m looking for a raise.”
“Sell one of the planes,” Azoff said in response, but Buffett explained he was defending “young, struggling artists.”
Buffett isn’t the first artist to express his dissatisfaction with streaming revenues. Other artists who have spoken out about the issue include Bette Midler, Thom Yorke, and The Black Keys.
