If you’re not at least partially in-tune with the Joe Rogan v. Earth debacle, there’s a good chance you’re a caveman or amish. Without delving too far into tired details, Joe Rogan has presented his audio streaming overlord with quite a pickle—legendary singer/songwriters Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have prompted a boycott of Spotify following COVID-19 misinformation and racial slurs surfacing on Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. The obvious reaction to these reports would be to remove Rogan’s show from the platform entirely, but since it’s tied into a hundred-million dollar partnership, CEO Daniel Ek opted to include “misinformation labels” as a compromise. It did nothing, of course, and more artists are joining in—most recently Stephen Stills and David Crosby (Graham Nash is still TBD, we guess?). These actions are certainly commendable, but are they for the right reasons? Rogan’s missteps were objectively awful, and yet, the attention being drawn to Spotify should be directed elsewhere—perhaps, to their shockingly terrible financial compensation. 

Saying Spotify doesn’t pay the artists on their platform is incorrect. It’s also not far from the truth. The green-and-black circle is in the hands of over 400 million users worldwide, making it the world’s biggest streaming service by a decent margin. For scale, 30 percent of the world’s “music streamers” use Spotify. It’s a crucial part of any small, medium or big artist’s growth—required, some might argue—and still, Spotify doesn't really give a shit about the creators that populate their interface. When compared to its popular counterparts, Apple Music and Tidal, the numbers are shockingly different. Apple Music pays almost twice as much per-stream as its biggest competitor, while Tidal pays roughly three times as much. Add in the high possibility of an involved record label—who, in reality, is paid first, then decides how much the artist is owed (a story for another time)—and these hard working musicians receive scraps on millions of streams. In more extreme cases, like that of universally acclaimed UK violinist Tasmin Little, Pitchfork reported that Little amassed 3.5 million Spotify streams in six months, but once it went through the service and her label, she was paid $15.50 for this feat. That’s an hour flipping burgers at McDonalds on Colfax. So, is this the fault of Spotify, or the record label in question? Well, both, but two things are also true: indie artists exist too, and Spotify fuels this machine worse than any of its rivals. 

The fact still remains that Spotify kicks the music market’s ass. This is mostly to do with its great features and sleek usability. It wins over customers with curated playlists, year-end recaps, cool sharing facets (like being able to see what your friends are listening to) and more. Despite what you may think, these things do not make Spotify unique. Apple Music offers all of the above and more, considering it ties directly into your iPhone (if you use Apple Music, ask Siri to “play something I like”). Tidal’s playlists are better than both. This plays into Spotify’s biggest facade: the pseudo-support of small creators through their huge selection of playlists. Not only are artists paid less, but they’re hidden in the shadows more often than not. Of the roughly 90 million of songs on the platform, iGroove reports, “only eleven-million belong to independent artists. But they’re often drowned out by constant popular new music—57,000 total artists account for 90% of streams, and 800 artists receive 20% of total revenue.” 

We’re not telling you to make the switch, but realize that, as much as Joe Rogan sucks, Spotify sucks even harder. They’re the ultimate suck.