Björk has called out the negative impact of Spotify on the livelihood of fellow artists, calling the streaming platform “probably the worst thing that has happened to musicians.”
While promoting her new concert film Apple Music Live: Björk in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (via NME), Björk reflected on being fortunate enough to not solely rely on touring income to sustain her career.
“For the seed to grow into a healthy and vigorous plant, you need privacy,” she said about her approach to recording new music. “You need a few years of no one knowing what you are doing, not even yourself.”
The singer added that she was currently focused on “getting out all the ideas I have inside me” and said she was grateful to not have to rush out “20 more albums” due to the nature of streaming.
“I’m lucky because I no longer have to raise money on touring, which younger musicians are often forced to do,” Björk explained. “In that respect, Spotify is probably the worst thing that has happened to musicians. The streaming culture has changed an entire society and an entire generation of artists.”
In 2015, Björk kept her album Vulnicura off Spotify at first. “This streaming thing just does not feel right,” she said at the time. “To work on something for two or three years and then just, ‘Oh, here it is for free.’ It’s not about the money; it’s about respect… or the craft and the amount of work you put into it.”
Spotify has been under particular scrutiny of late. Last May, Billboard estimated the streamer’s new royalty model would pay songwriters about $150 million less during its first year in comparison to the previous model. In response, some songwriters decided to boycott the platform’s Grammy party celebrating songwriters earlier this month.
Besides that, a December report alleged Spotify is filling playlists with ghost artists to further minimize royalty costs. All the while, CEO Daniel Ek has bizarrely remarked that “creating content” costs “close to zero” while earning far more money than any artist makes from his platform.