A young Salford rapper has spoken out on how difficult it is for small artists to make it in the industry following Spotify’s latest announcement.
20-year-old rapper Jude Peters, whose stage name is JWP, has been writing, producing and recording his own music for three years. One of his songs “301 am” received 4,000 streams on Spotify.
Recently, Spotify released a statement, explaining that they will be changing the way they pay royalties.
The new changes mean that artists with under 1,000 streams within a 12-month period will no longer be paid, which makes up 60 per cent of Spotify’s current catalogue.
The money will be distributed between artists that qualify instead.
JWP has expressed his concern about the change: “I’ve got 10 thousand streams in total on Spotify, yet I’ve only been paid £20.
“Streams amount to nothing. It’s just so difficult to make a living.”
When Spotify made their announcement, Jude was hoping that they would raise the amount of money being paid per stream, but it is staying at £0.03.
JWP added: “I would be way more able to pursue music as a career if I was paid fairly and had enough money to live. As a young artist, I have to balance my work, university and also my music career, which is just too much.”
One of JWP’s concerns is that independent artists will quit making music. He said: “To start a career with nothing is already impossible and to get to that higher level with no money is only such a slim chance.“
JWP has appealed to fans of smaller artists to support them in their careers as the payment change will impact thousands of musicians.
“There’s nothing wrong with streaming big artists, we all do,” JWP said: “but ultimately it makes a bigger impact on smaller artists. Share their profiles, stream their music as there will always be something out there that you love.”
He added: “People always look back and talk about how they were listening to musicians before they were cool, so why not do it?”
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