They Might Be Giants Say Spotify Intentionally Keeps Artists in the Dark

Yesterday (April 1), They Might Be Giants’ John Flansburgh and John Linnell visited Bloomberg to discuss the evolution of their career and how the change in the music industry’s use of technology has affected their work. Though Flansburgh says the band has “embraced a lot of technologies as they’ve come along,” he still questions the practices of streaming services like Spotify.

Flansburgh said that he believes such platforms intentionally keep artists in the dark as to the number of listens their music receives, along with other similar metrics.

“I keep on wondering why you can’t get a legitimate statement from Spotify and Pandora,” Flansburgh said. “It’s like that part of it has to remain a mystery … The records are so easy to keep now, why can’t they just pass them along to the artist?”

The frontman appears to be alluding to the possibility that Spotify and other such services use that lack of transparency as a means to keep artists from knowing how much revenue or royalties they may not be receiving.

“I think it’s more like Netflix, that they just don’t want you to know,” he continued. “There are so many hit shows on Netflix.”

Hear more of They Might Be Giants' interview here. The band is set to release their new album, Glean, on April 21, which follows 2013's Nanobots.