Cradle Of Filth's Dani Filth has condemned Spotify, and says he "owes it" to his fellow musicians to not have an account on the streaming platform.
In a new interview on Sonic Perspectives, the frontman explores the realities of living as an artist during a time where music is so readily and cheaply accessible in digital spaces.
He says (via Blabbermouth), “I owe it to my brethren in metal and music not to have a fucking Spotify account because they don’t pay people. It’s not just them — it’s just platforms in general.
“I appreciate the fact that people could discover you from another band and whatever; I’ve heard it a million times. But I’m old school… I want my bands to be paid because if they’re not paid, they’re not bands anymore."
Noting the impact of streaming platforms on the livelihood of musicians, he continues: “I know so many people from big bands that since the pandemic have gone, ‘You know what? I’m taking a proper job. So you’ll see me less often. We’ll still be doing albums, but probably once every five years,’ because it just seems like daylight robbery.”
Filth then goes on to compare the act of streaming music to taking food illegally from shops, explaining: "If you owned a delicatessen or a fucking supermarket even, people aren't allowed to just come in and help themselves to free produce, which is what people think they're entitled to do with music because it's a periphery thing and it's in the air.
"You can't physically touch music. But how do you expect bands to survive without that?"
The frontman additionally shines a light on the film industry clamping down on online piracy, noting how he feels there's less strict attitudes to consuming music without fully paying for it. ""Obviously, they really try [to combat piracy] with movies, and there's more money involved in movies — obviously," he says.
"But in England, we used to have these, not up to very recently, this whole advert they had before the movie starts where 'video piracy is killing the movie industry', and they even go to the point where they'd have this slamming prison doors, in IMAX quality sound, THX. 'You're going to prison if you watch a bootleg movie.' But not the same for… I know back in the day [they had a message on the back of albums saying that] 'home taping is killing music,' but nowadays it's like a fucking free for all."
This is not the first time Filth has aired his disapproval of the service. In 2023, he dubbed Spotify "the biggest criminals in the world".
While in conversation with Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece, he explained: "It's been deteriorating ever since… I think 2006 was the year that everything swapped from being comfortable for musicians — well, not necessarily comfortable; it was never comfortable.
"But [it went to] just being a lot harder with the onset of the digital age, the onset of music streaming platforms that don't pay anybody. Like Spotify are the biggest criminals in the world. I think we had 25, 26 million plays last year, and I think personally I got about 20 pounds, which is less than an hourly work rate."
A Spotify spokesperson recently responded to Filth's claims, stating: “£20!? Spotify has paid out around a million dollars in revenue to Cradle of Filth’s rightsholders for fans’ streams of their catalog. We’re disappointed to hear that Spotify’s payments are not making it through to the band.”
Watch the full interview with Sonic Perspectives below:
