In a new interview with the “Arroe Collins View From The Writing Instrument” podcast, former DOKKEN member and current FOREIGNER bassist Jeff Pilson gave his thoughts on streaming:
“Streaming makes us think properly, because people listen to music mostly through streaming services.
And that creates a challenge for the artist because the royalties for streaming are ridiculous. So we have to try our best. We still sell physical CDs, and that’s a good thing. Our audience still buys physical disks to see the album cover and everything else, but that’s becoming more and more rare. So streaming is becoming an important factor because the revenues are so much lower.
I think one day musicians are going to have to do what actors and authors in Hollywood have to do – go on strike or something like that to renegotiate the amount of streaming revenue, because it’s extremely low. It’s also fickle. Pretty soon people won’t be able to make a living from music, and that will be dangerous. Then music standards will drop a lot, and we absolutely don’t want to let that happen.”
During the talk, Pilson also criticized the method of using artificial intelligence to compose music:
“Unfortunately, computers can now compose music, and that’s crazy. But that’s another big reason why we need to renegotiate, because now there’s probably going to be a lot of people out of work who write background music and things like that, because now computers can do it. So why not? And it’s dangerous.”
Spotify has been criticized for years for its paltry payouts to musicians and songwriters, and some have argued that the service gives major-label artists an undeserved advantage through playlist placement and other promotional opportunities.
