It’s been a disastrous year for musicians and other performers, as the COVID-19 pandemic brought the live music industry to its knees, wiping out a huge source of income. Because concerts are off the table for the foreseeable future, artists are forced to rely largely on streaming revenue from the likes of Spotify and Apple Music — and what they earn in royalties from those platforms is far less than you’d expect.
As NME points out, Led Zeppelin legend Jimmy Page has joined the chorus of voices speaking out to urge streaming services to pay fairer royalties to musicians and songwriters. Page took to social media to voice his support.
“I fully appreciate the dilemma surrounding streaming royalties that should be rightfully paid to all musicians and writers who made the music,” he wrote on Instagram. “The sooner the streaming companies can make fair payments to all musicians whose music is played on or viewed via the internet, and to pay fair royalties to those who give us great pleasure from those who are exploiting it, the better.”
Page isn’t the only U.K. musician to speak out about the issue recently. Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and Gomez’s Tom Gray have also voiced their support for fairer streaming royalties, telling Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee that streaming payments are “threatening the future of music.”
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