[shampto3]

I believe this is missing context. From what I understand, Spotify pays big record label companies a lot of money as part of their negotiation for permission to host/stream their music. If they didn't pay these record labels they wouldn't have the music most people want to stream, and so they wouldn't have any power to get customers. They are basically held hostage by the big record label companies if they want to run their business because Spotify doesn't actually own any of the music they stream.

So now let's look at the artists under these record labels. Do they get a cut of the deal that Spotify has with the company? As far as I can tell, they do not. Artists only get paid royalties based on how much their songs are streamed, which is extremely low. They do not get any money from the backdoor deal that Spotify has with their label.

Personally I think artists have the right to be mad at both Spotify and their label.

[_rutinerad]

I’m not following. The label is the entity that the artist chose to represent them. The labels do not pass on the money that they make during that representation. Who else should the artists blame, other than themselves for choosing poor representation (from only poor options)?

[Two4]

If you don't sign with a larger record label, it's harder to get good marketing, gigs and distribution (although some people make a decent go at it by grassrooting via social media). All the big labels operate in the same way, more or less like a cartel.

[colechristensen]

Kinda seems like it’s the record labels fault though, like they should be aligned with the interests of the artists instead of just for themselves.

What do labels even do these days?