Most nominated songwriters will miss Spotify's Grammy party in suspected boycott

This year’s Grammy-nominated songwriters are writing Spotify out of their plans. Per Billboard, Jessi Alexander (“Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” by Luke Combs), Amy Allen (“Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter), Jessie Jo Dillon (“10,000 Hours” by Dan + Shay), and RAYE (“Escapism.” by RAYE) will not be attending Spotify’s songwriter of the year party, meant to give the writers a chance to sing the songs they wrote for other artists before the big night. That’s at least four out of five guests of honor; representatives for Edgar Barrera, the fifth nominated writer, did not confirm or deny his attendance.

While everyone didn’t explicitly confirm it, the prevailing idea is that these absences have to do with Spotify sharply decreasing royalties rates for songwriters, beginning in April of last year. The price for premium users actually increased that month, as the company added audiobooks to the tier. Now, in a move the company argues is “consistent” with competitors like Apple Music and Amazon Music, some of the pot that would have gone to the songwriters is being split between the audiobook publishing companies as well. Under the new structure, Billboard estimates that writers stand to lose about $150 million over 12 months compared to what they would have made before the change.

“After some thought, I couldn’t in good conscience support this initiative given their approach to bundling royalties,” said Dillon in a statement to Billboard. “It is very nice to be individually honored, but it is better for me and my entire songwriter community to be paid fairly for our art. There are no songs without songwriters.” A rep for RAYE added that the singer-songwriter hadn’t committed to attending in the first place, but has been “an outspoken advocate on behalf of songwriters’ rights igniting an industry-wide dialogue on the topic.” While they weren’t nominated, other songwriters like Ross Golan and Laura Veltz have also committed to boycotting the party.

This is hardly the first time artists have spoken out about Spotify’s crappy pay structure. Thom Yorke briefly pulled his catalog from the streamer in 2013, and in 2014, Taylor Swift did the same. “I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music,” she told Rolling Stone at the time. “And I just don’t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free.”