Dani Filth: “I owe it to my brethren in metal and music not to have a f**king Spotify account”
While Spotify is reporting record-breaking profits, modern streaming has had a detrimental impact on artists’ pay checks. The company pays an average of $0.003 – $0.005 per stream, meaning you’ll earn max £50 if your song is streamed 10,000 times. And Cradle Of Filth’s Dani Filth isn’t a fan.
In a new interview with Sonic Perspectives, Filth has revealed that he refuses to sign up for Spotify. “I owe it to my brethren in metal and music not to have a fucking Spotify account because they don’t pay people,” he explains. “And it’s not just them – it’s just platforms in general.”
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While streaming has made music more accessible to the masses, Filth is a strong believer in buying physical media. “I appreciate the fact that, from [Spotify], people could discover you from another band and whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever,” he says. “I’ve heard it a million times. But I’m old school. I want CDs, I want vinyl. I want my bands to be paid because if they’re not paid, they’re not bands anymore!”
“I know so many people from big bands that since the pandemic have gone, ‘You know what? I’m taking a proper job,’” he continues. “Music – it just seems like daylight robbery. If you owned a fucking supermarket, 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.”
He acknowledges that some musicians are making money – but they’re the ones at the top of the food chain. “Sure, music’s getting bigger and bigger – but that’s because Taylor Swifts of the world and the Ed Sheerans, who we’ve just done a song with, are everywhere,” he explains.
Filth even takes a moment to liken streaming to piracy. Due to the non-physical nature of streaming, people don’t realise that it’s like taking something without properly paying for it. “Obviously, they really try [to combat piracy] with movies,” he says. “I know back in the day [the back of albums used to read] ‘home taping is killing music,’ but nowadays it’s like a fucking free for all!”
Last year, Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, explained how the company had paid out more than ever (around $9 billion), despite people’s complaints that the company underpaid artists. In an Instagram clip, he explained how the large sum was spread across the music industry by comparing it to professional football. “If you take football, it’s played by hundreds of millions of people around the world,” he said. “But there’s a very, very small number of people that can live off of playing soccer full-time.”
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Thankfully, Filth notes that the metal scene is one of the best for supporting its artists. “The metal scene is probably one of the most loyal scenes,” he insists. “They wear their hearts on their sleeves, wear the bands on their battle jackets. They’ll go and buy the blood-splattered vinyl, or they’ll buy the special edition, if there was one.”
It’s not the first time Filth has criticised Spotify. Back in 2023, he told Rock Hard Greece that streaming has royally screwed over musicians. “I think 2006 was the year that everything swapped from being comfortable for musicians,” he said. “[But it’s now] a lot harder with the onset of the digital age, the onset of music streaming platforms that don’t pay anybody.”
“Spotify are the biggest criminals in the world,” he said. “I think we had 25, 26 million plays last year, and I think personally I got about £20, which is less than an hourly work rate.”
Despite the $9 billion payout last year, Spotify is currently the lowest paying streaming platform, next only to YouTube Music.
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