Music workers are making virtually no money off of streaming. Spotify's infamous average $0.0038 starvation royalty rate fails to even pay production costs for the large majority of music workers. Meanwhile, ad-based and data-mining platforms like YouTube make billions of dollars a year while paying even less... or nothing at all. How can it be that there is so much money being made on streaming music, and so little of it gets into the pockets of music creators?

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Originally, the 1997-98 Digital Millennium Copyright Act called on all stakeholders to get together to agree on Standard Technical Measures (STM’s) that would prevent the looting of our work. But Big Tech was making billions in ad-based and data mining profit from our files, so Big Tech obstructed the process.  

22 years is enough. It’s time for Congress to step in and tell the US Copyright Office to bring the Tech corporations to the table and finish the job. The technology already exists. The need is greater than ever. Standardizing Technical Measures to protect our work online are the first step towards Streaming Justice! To end Spotify’s starvation wage and create basic economic fairness in the digital domain, we need Congress to act now!

It's on us – rank-and-file music workers – to show Congress that musicians/DJ’s are willing to speak our truth to Big Tech's corporate power.  

That’s why Music Workers Alliance is organizing the Streaming Justice! Virtual Rally and Campaign Launch on February 23rd at 8pm. Join us and bring a friend! RSVP to get Zoom info.