Spotify Now Allows Artists To Raise Funds Directly, And That’s The Dilemma

It’s never been easy to make it as an artist, and with gigging now out of the picture, most are put into an even more precarious position. Living on a shoestring is okay if you feel like your career is making progress, but with everything and everyone in lockdown, it’s pretty easy to lose hope when there’s little money coming in. Spotify has tried to bring a little relief to the situation by adding a new feature called the Artist Fundraising Pick, which can help the artist raise money directly from fans for themselves or for a charity. While on the surface this sounds like a great idea, it also offers the artist an unwanted dilemma.

According to Spotify, “this feature enables artists who are interested in raising money to support themselves, their bands or their crews to get the word out to their fans on their Spotify artist profiles. We have a strong group of initial fundraising partners: Artists can choose to add a link to Cash App, GoFundMe and PayPal.me.”

The post goes on to say, “We’ve also created the option for artists to fundraise for an initiative connected to helping those most impacted in the music industry. Artists can select any of the verified organizations participating in the Spotify COVID-19 Music Relief project.”

That’s where the dilemma comes in, and it’s a matter of perception by an artist’s fans. Giving the option to fundraise for a charity puts the artist into the position of potentially looking bad for accepting funds that go toward paying their bills in comparison with other artists that choose to forward it to a cause.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing more noble than contributing money to those in need, and it’s something that everyone should do more of, providing they have the money to spare. You’ve got to take care of yourself first, though, and most artists are normally already living on the edge, which means they’re really financially under water now. Guilt-tripping them into raising money for a good cause isn’t the best way to go here.

Now I don’t think for a minute that this was ever the intention of Spotify, but sometimes good ideas have unintended consequences. Most fans think that artists (especially those signed to even a small indie label) are much better off financially than they are. A fan who likes an indie artist’s music as much as that of a superstar often equates them as equal, even though one lives in luxury while the other may be one step away from homelessness.

Probably a better direction that could have been taken is to just open up the Artist Fundraising Pick to only self-funding for the artist. The charity option could have been made semi-privately to superstars through their label reps. It would be clean and keep the donation stigmas at bay. But we have what we have for now, and artists will have to deal with it.

Perhaps this is making a mountain out of a molehill or seeing a problem where there isn’t one, but an artist’s, band’s, songwriter’s, engineer’s and producer’s needs are critical, and any funding ambiguity makes it that much harder for them to keep the wolf from the door.

I just hope that fans understand that artists have to survive first before altruism steps in.