Songwriters nominated for Songwriter of the Yr on the 2025 Grammy Awards shall be skipping Spotify’s Grammy celebration celebrating songwriters, with some citing the platform’s controversial royalty coverage as the rationale for his or her absence.
4 out of the 5 nominees for Songwriter of the Yr — Jessi Alexander, Amy Allen, Jessie Jo Dillon, and RAYE — received’t attend the Spotify occasion, with Dillon and Allen confirming to Billboard that they made the choice in gentle of the change to Spotify’s subscription tiers final 12 months bundling audiobooks with premium, which is anticipated to lead to a $150 million lower in songwriters’ payout in its first 12 months.
Dillon — who’s nominated for Songwriter of the Yr for the second 12 months in a row due to writing credit with Put up Malone, Morgan Wallen, Megan Moroney, and extra — advised Billboard, “After some thought, I couldn’t in good conscience assist this initiative given their strategy to bundling royalties. It is rather good to be individually honored, however it’s higher for me and my total songwriter group to be paid pretty for our artwork. There aren’t any songs with out songwriters.”
Likewise, representatives for Allen stated she was forgoing due to the royalty reduce. A rep for RAYE (additionally nominated for Greatest New Artist), stated she by no means dedicated to the celebration within the first place, however described her as an “outspoken advocate” for an “industry-wide dialogue” about songwriters’ rights. Alexander, in the meantime, didn’t present a purpose for skipping the occasion, however confirmed she wouldn’t be there.
Spotify has by no means been too widespread with musicians, however the boycott of their Grammy celebration comes at a time of rising dissatisfaction. In October, Lily Allen revealed that she was making more cash from toes pics on OnlyFans than Spotify, even with eight million month-to-month listeners, and 2023 Grammy nominee for Songwriter of the Yr, Laura Veltz, stated of the latest royalty reduce in an Instagram story, “Spotify is robbing you. Songwriters: don’t fall for this horse shit.”
In the meantime, Spotify itself noticed record-high earnings in 2024, and CEO Daniel Ek is at present incomes way over even the highest-streamed artists on the platform. As well, a report alleged this previous December that they’re even filling playlists with ghost artists to attenuate royalty prices.