Spotify removes independent music, were you affected?
Why did they do it? No one knows for sure...
But it seems that Spotify’s new year resolution to purge 1,000,000+ songs (by indie artists only) may have been a play to save potentially millions of dollars by no longer having to pay those artists their streaming royalties...
WTF is right 🤯🤬
If you were a victim of this massive 2021 takedown initiative - or in case you become affected sooner or later - we’ll show you how to get your song back up on Spotify with your Streaming Numbers 100% Restored!
So, first let’s address what has been arguably one of the largest organized attacks in the history of the music business, which specifically targeted independent artists...
Was your song recently removed from Spotify for alleged “suspicious activity”?
Well, so were hundreds of thousands of other independent artists around the world (collectively 1M+ songs were taken down by Spotify just last month). But somehow, coincidentally, no major label artists were affected by this…
Even more oddly, the majority of artists whose music was taken down happened to be registered with Distrokid as their distributor...
Putting conspiracy theories aside, let’s just take into consideration a few things that you may have not been aware of until now:
Within the first half of 2018, Spotify lost $647 million dollars, mostly due to the cost of payouts to record labels and artists for the music on their platform.
In late 2018, Spotify bought, and since then has held a minor stake in Distrokid, which begs the question... Was this 2021 takedown truly a stance against artists who may or may not have bought fake streams? Or possibly a play by Spotify/Distrokid to save millions of dollars by paying out substantially less royalties to indie artists?
According to a 2020 report from Forbes, Spotify’s year-over-year growth rate in premium subscribers has fallen sharply by 45% within just the past few years... Furthermore, Spotify’s year-over-year revenue growth rate has fallen 24%, and based on this trend is projected to fall another 6% by next year (2022).
Spotify has and continues to lose large portions of market share to powerhouse competitors such as Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.
Professional songwriters, alongside the National Music Publishers’ Association, are currently locked in a legal battle against Spotify and Amazon, over how much songwriters will get paid in the United States moving forward... “Spotify delivers our product to consumers, yet if we’re getting 15% and they’re getting roughly 30%, then they must be arguing that their role is twice as valuable as the songwriters’ role. That’s crazy!” - David Israelite, CEO and president of the NMPA
Regardless of what you take away from this, my 3 biggest concerns on this topic are...
Indie artists seem to have been purposefully targeted, since no major label artists were affected so far.
Prior to their music being taken down, artists were not given even one chance to dispute Spotify’s accusations or to submit any evidence that could prove their streams were legitimate.
For all of the indie artists who are serious about their careers… who have worked tirelessly to get their music heard, and invested hundreds or thousands of dollars into branding and marketing… how could Spotify ever think this was acceptable?
What kind of message does this send to indie artists?...
That they will be punished for investing in paid ads or promoting their music through various channels, just because it doesn’t benefit Spotify?
How is this any different than what major labels do every single day, with millions spent on marketing to turn their artists into international pop stars?
And how could we ever expect an indie artist to succeed if they are suddenly torn down right when they were finally gaining traction from their marketing efforts?
Fortunately for you, although this war may be far from over, my team and I are here to help you win one battle at a time…
Even when we’re going up against giants...
In fact, we have already helped various artists who had their songs taken down in January (right as they had reached 30k-70k streams). They have now successfully reuploaded their music on Spotify with their numbers fully restored and starting to climb again.
So, if any of your music was recently removed from Spotify, or just in case you are impacted in the near future, here is your life saver…
Follow these exact specific instructions:
Find the ISRC Code that was assigned to your song (or the multiple codes assigned to each song if your entire EP/album was taken down). This code allows streaming platforms to identify and track your music/streaming activity.
Note: If you didn’t keep any personal record of that, then you should be able to find the ISRC Code by logging in to your account of the distribution service you used and click on the song(s) that was taken down, where it shows all of that song’s information.
Copy and save the code(s) to a separate document so that you have a record of that and can refer back to it as needed.
Note: We recommend that you also copy and save the codes for all previous releases even if those were not taken down. Better to be safe than sorry.
Then remove the song(s) that were taken down by Spotify from your current distributor.
Note: This will also remove the song(s) from all other streaming platforms and digital stores that your song(s) were previously available on.
Note: Once the song(s) are down you will no longer be at risk of being flagged for copyright protection when re-uploading the song(s) with a different distributor.
Research, compare, and decide which new distributor will best suit you.
Note: As of February 2021, the Spotify take down initiative has affected mostly artists who distributed their music through Distrokid (by vast majority), and also some who distributed their music with United Masters…
Distributors that haven’t yet reported any takedowns on their platforms:
Songflowr
CD Baby
TuneCore
When uploading through the new distributor of your choice, you MUST use the exact same metadata (ISRC Code, Artist Name, Song Name, etc.). It will need to look like an exact replica in order for your streaming numbers to be restored.
Make sure that you select distribution to all of the streaming platforms and digital stores that your song(s) was previously available on.
Within 5-10 days your song(s) should appear back on Spotify with the streaming numbers that you had accumulated prior to being taken down. Shortly after, your music will become available on all other platforms again.
If you have any other questions on this topic, you can reach out to our team here and one of our A&R’s will be happy to assist you.
PS -- For any artists who may have actually purchased 3rd party Spotify marketing services, the reality is that most of you were not aware that those may have been fake streams or bots, which is why we believe that artists should have at least been given a fair warning before their music was taken down, and also why we believe that artists deserve a second chance.
THIS IS YOUR SECOND CHANCE, SO DON’T FVXK IT UP!
Start by getting your music and numbers restored ASAP, and then focus your energy on new marketing strategies (there are so many more)...
If marketing is an area you need help in, or if you’re serious about your music career and are looking for a serious manager, you can submit an Artist Application to see if you would be eligible for Forever Current’s new Artist Management and Mentorship program…
If it seems that you’re a good fit then one of our A&R’s will respond to your application and provide you with a private link to book your first 1-hour Artist Strategy Call with me.
Watch this video if you would like to learn more about our Artist Management/Artist Development programs and see some of the success stories for yourself!
Blessings,
Gabriel