Spotify found to utilize ‘ghost producers’ as way to save on royalty payments

While Spotify is the most popular streaming platform, its practices have been fraught with controversy. The latest is the use of ‘ghost producers’ to avoid paying royalties to artists.

As music streaming became the norm, the industry and its artists had to adjust to and fight for their share of the financial pie. No longer do fans flock to record stores to grab vinyl, cassettes, and CDs, but many choose to access millions of songs from their phones or computers. This has meant that royalty payments have become an issue of concern and struggle for many artists as the payout methods vary and evolve across platforms. With Spotify CEO Daniel Ek now worth over $6 billion, his company remains at the center of the streaming platform royalty controversy.

With no shortage of tales of artists complaining about the meager return they receive from Spotify, the streaming giant has now been faced with new frustration from artists as Harper’s Magazine has uncovered the use of ghost producers to help the platform avoid payouts. In the investigation, it seems that Spotify paid several artists to produce hundreds of tracks which its internal team then placed strategically on playlists to help avoid paying more royalties out to regular artists. Author Liz Pelly writes, “It also raises worrying questions for all of us who listen to music. It puts forth an image of a future in which—as streaming services push music further into the background, and normalise anonymous, low-cost playlist filler—the relationship between listener and artist might be severed completely.”