Spotify has been a leading figure in the music industry especially of late; with their giant platform and massive popularity, they’ve made an incredible splash when it comes to changing and reforming the consumption of music as we know it. Albeit finding themselves in the spotlight for various reasons that are not particularly flattering (such as their infamous ad campaign ‘dance like nobody’s paying’ as well as their disinterest toward raising artist royalties) there’s no denying that Spotify is a driving force in the way the music world is adapting more and more to advancing modern music consumerism.
In their newest venture, Spotify have acquired the online music production / talent marketplace SoundBetter; a platform in which individuals are able to sell their services and find work within their chosen fields. This extends to everyone from producers to songwriters, vocalists, sound engineers and session musicians.
Providing an online platform where musicians are able to secure work based on their own terms, as well as get in contact with industry leaders – allows for many opportunities for musicians who would otherwise have an extremely difficult time selling their services.
Similar to the business platform Linked In, SoundBetter allows for potential employers to find the right partners to work with, with verified reviews creating transparency to further the careers and opportunities for everyone involved.
As mentioned before, Spotify’s attitude toward supporting artists above their own agenda to make profit has been quite obvious as well as highly criticised. With their extremely low royalty rates for artists who are the literal backbone of their service, it’s extremely difficult for these artists to make a livable wage providing their work to the platform. When confronted with the opportunity to accept a bill that would raise artist royalties by 44%, the company filed an appeal – along with other major streaming platforms, the only exception being Apple who embraced the proposal.
Although no exact details of the acquisition of SoundBetter have been released, taking a step toward backing and supporting a service that exists to financially (and creatively) empower all types of musicians is promising; with so many resources available at the streaming giant’s fingertips, providing those resources to platforms that allow musicians a chance to be empowered and find incredible work opportunities in a very competitive industry is hopefully a positive move toward putting artists and musicians first.
More information about SoundBetter here.
