James Blake has voiced his concerns about the monetisation of music on streaming platforms, claiming that people now consider music to be free. Responding to a quote on Twitter about him and Frank Ocean “never making a cent” from their track ‘Godspeed’, which went viral on TikTok and was listed as “original sound” in the majority of clips, Blake expanded on the issue, claiming that many people are of the view that, “If you’re lucky enough to go viral, just use the exposure to generate income some other way’. Musicians should be able to generate income via their music. Do you want good music or do you want what you paid for?”
Blake believes that the current streaming industry has created an environment where consumers don’t value music as a product due to streaming services not paying artists properly, labels wanting more significant cuts and relying on a track going viral, TikTok not paying artists adequately and touring getting prohibitively expensive. Blake observed that the cheaper production of fast, synthetic music to be dropped on streaming sites every week to capitalize on the strengths of the model is conditioning people to expect AI-generated music sooner rather than later. Such music pays artists nothing.
Blake’s comments resonated with many other artists, including Kanye West, who recalled in a tweet that he tried to meet with the heads of Spotify, Google, and Tidal to discuss compensation for artists but called off the meeting as none of the heads showed up. Blake summed up his argument in a video statement, which he recently shared. Several artists have spoken out in support of Blake.
In conclusion, Blake believes that musicians should be able to generate income via their music. Still, due to the current streaming model’s inadequacies, they are not, and this is leading to a devaluation of music in people’s minds. He added that this situation is conditioning people to expect AI-generated music to be used to replace human musicians without proper compensation. The music industry needs to address this issue, Blake believes, as many of its artists are being exploited
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