>>Ben Sisario, The New York Times
Published: 09 May 2021 12:49 PM BdST
Updated: 09 May 2021 12:49 PM BdST
Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music pulled the business back from the brink. But artists say they can’t make a living. And their complaints are getting louder. (Jon Han/The New York Times)
When the pandemic hit last year, British singer-songwriter Nadine Shah saw her income dry up in an instant. The concert bookings that sustained her vanished and, at age 34, she moved back in with her parents on the northeast coast of England.
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“I was financially crippled,” Shah said in an interview.
Like musicians everywhere who were stuck off the road, staring into the abyss of their bank accounts, Shah — whose dark alto and eclectic songs have brought her critical acclaim and a niche following — began to examine her livelihood as an artist. Money from the streams of her songs on services like Spotify and Apple Music was practically nonexistent, she said, adding up to “just a few pounds here and there.” So she joined other disillusioned musicians in organising online to push for change. Last fall, Shah testified before a parliamentary committee that has been taking a hard look at the economics of streaming, raising the prospect of new regulation.