Trent Reznor: “The terrible payout of streaming services has mortally wounded a whole tier of artists”
“We’ve had enough time for the whole ‘All the boats rise’ argument to see they don’t all rise.”
Image: R. Diamond / Getty
Did you know that Trent Reznor helped to build Apple’s music streaming service? The Nine Inch Nails frontman once worked as an executive for Beats and later at Apple, and it most certainly opened his eyes to the difficulties that face artists trying to make money through streams.
Although Reznor enjoyed working with Apple, he says the experience made him “realise how much I want to be an artist first and foremost”.
In a new interview with GQ alongside bandmate and friend Atticus Ross, Reznor says that the opportunity was “unique” and “interesting” adding, “The scale of the people that you reach through those platforms, just the global amount of influence those platforms can have was exciting”. But on the other hand, “the political situation I was dropped into was not as exciting.”
Expanding on the latter statement, Reznor goes on to add, “I think the terrible payout of streaming services has mortally wounded a whole tier of artists that make being an artist unsustainable. And it’s great if you’re Drake, and it’s not great if you’re Grizzly Bear.
“And the reality is: Take a look around. We’ve had enough time for the whole ‘All the boats rise’ argument to see they don’t all rise. Those boats rise. These boats don’t. They can’t make money in any means. And I think that’s bad for art.”
He explains, “I thought maybe at Apple there could be influence to pay in a more fair or significant way, because a lot of these services are just a rounding error compared to what comes in elsewhere, unlike Spotify where their whole business is that. But that’s tied to a lot of other political things and label issues, and everyone’s trying to hold onto their little piece of the pie and it is what it is. I also realise, I think that people just want to turn the faucet on and have music come in. They’re not really concerned about all the romantic shit I thought mattered.”
Apple Music’s royalty rate reportedly sits around $0.007 and $0.01 per stream. Artists such as James Blake are currently trying to think of other ways they can generate income – the electronic musician recently launched his own platform called Vault, which allows artists to upload unreleased music, which fans pay a monthly subscription fee set by the artist for.
Over in the States, a Living Wage for Musicians Act was put to US Congress which would compensate artists at a minimum of a penny per stream.
