101 ways to shaft a musician ?

How the devil are you all?  It seems like ages since I wrote a catch up, so I thought  it  was time I pulled my finger out? As many of you that follow will know, I came off all platforms bar Bandcamp and Soundcloud a few years ago due to the appalling conditions many of them place on artists and with zero support re:customer service. With many of these sites everything's okay until it's not okay. Distribution sites have the power to block, suspend, delete your account without notice other than to say there has been suspicious activity re streaming figures etc, but they don't have to give a reason, they also get to keep any money you've made in that account. It's all there in the small print of the zillion pages of terms and conditions that let's face it none of us have the time to read. I only found all this out when i was a victim of it.  Eighteen years worth of music pulled in a heartbeat. It was only then I started researching these distribution companies and the platforms that our music goes out on and was horrified to what I found. Thankfully in my own case, my complaint was escalated and the distribution company apologised and admitted they'd got things wrong BUT  also admitted it was too late, once everything's been pulled they can't put it back up, I would have to start all over  again and upload the music again...I declined.

However I was still one of the lucky ones, I found numerous cases while researching, where musicians had basically had their accounts blocked and all their funds, many running into a few thousand stolen by these companies , as independent musicians they didn't have the funds to fight these big corporate  companies, it was heart-breaking to read so many cases. 

We now also know that platforms such as Spotify are funding the genocide in Gaza as well as shafting musicians with peanuts for streams, and even that is dependent on many factors, whether you have a paid account or free account, whether there's been a signed agreement with a record company, you also have to have had a minimum 1000 streams in the past 12 months to be eligible for payment . While that might not sound a lot, for a musician starting out it's almost an impossible ask?

As I'm now only on Bandcamp and Soundcloud, I thought I would look into Soundcloud artist pro. I have a side project I'm working on under another name and genre so I thought I'd take a look. While doing a little research the overall public opinion seemed okay and at £75 for the year I thought it worth taking a shot, BUT... almost immediately there were red flags.  Soundcloud warn of fake profiles and bot profiles, they explain they try to remove many of them but can't always get them all. They even tell you what to look out for, profiles without any photo, 0 to very few follows/followers, no posts or engagement etc, I thought , great, cheers, I'll keep that in mind.

Soundcloud also have an option to click a button once your track is uploaded and  presumably some bot listens to it and if they decide your track is eligible, using algorithms they play it to loads of people that like listening to your kinda music to help get you engagement, follows etc although nothing is guaranteed. Now I'm no Ed Sheeran when it comes to Songwriting, but as someone that's been making music since Dinosaurs walked the earth, I know how to write a decent tune, to help things along I even offered it as a free download, the track to date has  reached  2,513 plays...BUT  there's not one follow, like, comment, share, download ?  SoundCloud keep popping the champagne corks like hey look at all these people listening to your track? but it's no good if there is absolutely no engagement, I went straight to look at data and guess what?.....Nearly all the listeners the track has been played to are profiles with no profile photo, 0-low follows/followers, no posts yadda yadda you get the picture, there are also all these "Third Party App" sites listed too? 

Seeing as it seemed  an extremely suspicious practice, I thought I'd contact SoundCloud ? Oh, hang on, you can't, the company don't have a customer service of any description just a help page with loaded "Do It Yourself" options. There's no refunds either, so I've just cancelled so they don't automatically renew it next year.  As a Jurassic musician I feel I've been shafted more times than a game of  Mineshaft,  But as i've done throughout my career when something doesn't sit right, I choose to vote with my feet, walking away just  as I've done in this case and just as i did a few years ago with all other sites.   I chose to do that because it needs to be done to safeguard future musicians, especially the younger generation coming up.  I alone won't make a difference of course, I get that, but we have to start somewhere  and nothing will change unless musicians collectively force these companies to change, while it is a huge step for many, I understand, I'm just asking you to consider ? How about  a "Pull it" campaign Friday 28th November, where people pull their music from the platforms?  I do believe change will eventually be forced, but not unless we force it,  sooner rather than later eh? 

                                      Stay Blessed

                                                        MC X