I Pulled My Music from Spotify Today. Here's Why.

Spotify was never essential to my career - my niche is composing for TV, film, and other media. Despite their laughably low royalties, I kept my music there so anyone could listen. This week, however, I experienced firsthand why Spotify is a liability for independent artists: I removed my music from the platform effective immediately. It’s still available for purchase and streaming elsewhere.

Here’s what happened. My distributor sent a letter about a “fine” from Spotify for “illegal streams.” One minute of digging revealed that a track of mine had been added without my knowledge to a Wavr playlist scam. These services sell “playlist promotion” using bot-generated plays, sprinkling in legitimate artists to look normal. Spotify acknowledges this happens often - but there’s no recourse. Reporting the playlist does nothing. They acknowledge that I was completely innocent yet the fine was collected from my royalties AND my entire album was removed.

Spotify doesn’t pursue the scammers. Instead, innocent artists are penalized, while major-label acts remain untouchable. The fine itself was small, but the liability is unlimited. Had it been a larger wavr playlist, the fine could have been more than I ever earned from Spotify. This is a system designed to treat independent musicians as disposable collateral.

Support independent artists: buy music if you can. If you must stream, choose platforms that aren’t plotting world domination - or targeting 007.