What use is being a rising star in the music industry when major labels and tech companies are black holes sucking all the money out of the room?
Woodstock punk rock band The Bobby Lees launched into the stratosphere in recent years with hyper-energetic recordings and live shows that made them critical darlings with cutting-edge types and gained them thousands of fans all over the country, with Iggy Pop, Blondie and Henry Rollins among them. They were, at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, the fresh face of mass-appeal punk, on a bullet train to an exciting career in music.
Then, just days ago, The Bobby Lees announced on social media that they were calling it quits, at least for the time being, due to the headwinds of the digital music industry. They said “the main issue seems to be Spotify and streaming”, going on to repeat the popular musicians’ sentiment that “It’s wild most people are comfortable spending $3-$5 on a cup of coffee today, but they no longer want to spend that same amount on an album they listen to often because streaming has set a shitty standard that most of us have accepted.”
While it’s disheartening that this is the case, it’s not the best look to blame the music fans – the streaming services and top labels are by far more at fault for the sad state of music careers. There is an obvious fix: Spotify and streaming services could move to a so-called “User-Centric Payment System” (UCPS) or “Fan-Powered Royalties.” Instead of the traditional “pro-rata” payment model where streaming revenue goes into a single pot and is then distributed based on the percentage of total streams, the user-centric system allocates payments based on the listening habits of each individual subscriber. Under this model, the royalties an artist receives would be directly proportional to the amount of time that individual users spend listening to their music. This is clearly a fairer way of distributing streaming revenue because it more accurately reflects the preferences of individual listeners and would benefit most smaller, independent artists as opposed to primarily favoring top-charting stars. If half of what you listened to on Spotify was the excellent latest album from The Bobby Lees (Bellevue, out on Ipecac Records), they’d get half of what you’re paying for your individual Spotify subscription (less Ipecac and Spotify’s take). Overnight, many independent artists would see dollars instead of pennies piling up for streaming. It wouldn’t solve all of the problems musicians face, but it would help immensely. It’s also likely never going to happen due to the unrelenting hegemony of the profit-driven music business.
The age-old divide between musicians and music business sadly rages on (with AI stalking in the background), and we can imagine no band full of rage right now than The Bobby Lees. Their music deserves to be heard, and the band deserves to be compensated for their hard work and creativity.
“Can’t you marry a rich older band?”, asked one of the hundreds of fans to comment on their social media announcement.
If these are indeed the band’s last shows in their native Woodstock, they’re not shows you can afford to miss. Anemic Royalty and All Day Special will round out the bill on Saturday, with Ghost Prom and Robin the Hammer joining on Sunday.
Visit colonywoodstock.com for info and tickets.
Join the family! 
