Former Spotify executive Jim Anderson made some controversial claims during a music conference this week.
Digital Music News notes that the 'Solutions Architect' spoke at a music conference in New York, and was cross-examined by musicians.
Songwriter Ashley Jana decided to push the issue of payment; while Apple Music recently upped its per-stream royalty payout to one penny per stream, Spotify’s per-stream rate remains a fraction of that.
Artists such as Taylor Swift have called out the streaming giant, with founder Daniel Ek attempting to buy Arsenal FC at the same time as the UK government hosts committees on inequalities in the digital marketplace.
SyncSummit New York hosted the conversation with Jim Anderson – who worked extensively with Spotify during its rise – which featured a note-worthy response.
He said: "So we should talk about entitlement. I mean, I have an issue with Taylor Swift’s comments. I have this issue with it, and we’ll call it entitlement. I mean, I consider myself an artist because I’m an inventor, okay? Now, I freely give away my patents for nothing. I never collect royalties on anything."
"I think Taylor Swift doesn’t need .00001 more a stream. The problem is this: Spotify was created to solve a problem. The problem was this: piracy and music distribution. The problem was to get artists’ music out there. The problem was not to pay people money."
He added: "The problem, the problem was to distribute music. Not to give you money, okay? The problem was to distribute music."
Read the conversation HERE or listen below.
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