How My Dead Uncle Persuaded Me To Embrace Spotify (Even Though It Sucks)

Apr 01, 2024

A few years ago, incensed at the awful payouts from streaming giant Spotify, I decided to stop releasing music on that platform. Now, about 5 years later, I am releasing music there as fast as I can. Not ony that, I am now investing in promotion, and in a few short months my monthly listeners has grown from about 100 to almost 10,000. Here's why I've changed my tune.

I was so mad at Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, I drew a cartoon showing him as a restaurant owner, explaining his immoral business to a non-plussed punter. I still do not have a high opinion of him or his company. He essentially (and I am sure, knowingly) pursued a revenue model which, although hugely profitable for him personally, was completely broken from the point of view of the artist. He did this with the blessing of the large record labels (who were asleep at the wheel at the time) and essentially hijacked the music industry. (The big labels were in fact happy to see some money coming in, any money, as the advent free downloading had left the industry in free-fall.)

So I decided to boycott Spotify. I had fans asking me when I would put out a new Cd. I had to explain to them that my fanbase wasn't large enough for me to do that without taking a financial hit. I asked them to purchase music on Bandcamp instead (which had and still has a much fairer payment model).

Most of them hadn't heard of Bandcamp. (Apart from one loyal friend and fan who promptly bought my whole catalogue - thank you John!) So all of this caused me to re-think my ideas.

But what has this to do with my dead uncle?

Well, actually he was a great uncle, and his name was Julius Verhaly. He was a concert violinist, originally from Hungary, but lived and taught in Vienna, until the late 1930s, when, seeing the rise of Hitler, he left for London, . Later he went to Australia and perfomred and taught there. I don't know too much else about him. I've heard that he had an interest in Buddhism and that he ran into trouble for helping young men find ways to evade being drafted to fight in WW2. (He was also apparently something of a womaniser, but that's by the by.)

Uncle Julius was clearly a colourful character. All I have of him are these fragments of information, the picture and concert program posted here (kindly sent by my dear Aunt Mandy). It would be especially wonderful to hear him play.

However, that's not possible, because Julius never recorded. You see, the growing recording industry had a pretty bad effect on many working musicians. A person could now buy a disc and listen to their favourite music whenever they wanted to. This did not bode well for the livelihoods of professional musicians, and Julius, who lived from teaching and performing, was one of them. He wasn't happy about it and, on principle I suppose, refused to record.

Others, who embraced the new technology, such as Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, or the great jazz pianist and singer Nat "King" Cole, saw their careers take off as a result of record sales. (They nicknamed the Capitol Records tower in L.A. "The House That Nat Built", so much money did he make for the company.) Was Julius Verhaly a musician in that class? Maybe, maybe not. The point is - I will never know.

I hope you see where I am coming from. We are in a time of social and cultural change, because of this revolution known as the "internet". It is causing all kinds of complicated problems, and affecting some people quite adversely. It is also creating new opportunities. (Indeed, the story of online streaming is not all bad : there are some artists who are succeeding commercially, using a combination of social media and online streaming platforms, without being signed to a label.)

I've always loved creating and listening to music, but disliked the "business". I've been passionately involved in home recording since the late 1980s. Getting a record deal was never my dream. I've been employed in the industry professionally (I briefly serviced high-end audio gear for some of London's top studios), and the experience left me with a bitter taste. It's often neither ethical nor kind, and tales of the callous incompetence and shady business practices of record companies abound.

When cheap recording gear became a thing, I couldn't wait. My first CD, cut in 1996, was recorded on an 8 track tape machine in my house. Then I saw that the barrier was now distribution. I remember thinking "this internet thing sounds interesting - wouldn't it be great if there was way to distribute music using it". I paid money to a fly-by-night company in Soho who promised to do just that - and who delivered very little.

So here we are, decades later, and music distribution over the net is real. And cheap too - I upload my music to Distrokid and it is available to you within a week or two.

Record companies were not only there to finance recording, but also touring, promotion, and distribution. For us indie artists, all those things now fall to us. So I try to do as much of that as I can. I'm basically a musical startup - finally, after all these years.

So, here is my (literal) bottom line. Much as I dislike Spotify and its business practices, I've decided to embrace the possibilities it offers. My online audience is growing (thank you, Martha in Buenos Aires!) although I'm not making any profit. But - the music I make is out there, people are listening, and that feels good. And who knows where that might lead?