2022: Neil Young in bad company
In a letter published on January 24 on his site – but since removed – the Canadian rocker issued an ultimatum to the Swedish streaming giant: “I want all my music removed from their platform. They can have Rogan or Young. Not both. » Neil Young, who suffered from polio as a child, slams host Joe Rogan, whose podcasts are accused of ” disinformation “ on Covid-19 by a group of doctors. Spotify, nevertheless addressing a warning, finally favored Rogan’s podcasts, listened to by 11 million people. Since then, the company has been battered on the stock market and unsubscriptions have multiplied.
November 2021: Adele defies randomness
Unlike the Canadian rocker, the British singer winner of 15 Grammy Awards managed to move Spotify. At the heart of his fight: listening to the pieces of an album in the order desired by the artist. “We don’t put so much care and thought into listing titles for no reason. Our music tells a story and our stories should be heard as we intended them.” she explained on Twitter on November 21, 2021. A message partly heard by Spotify. From now on, ” by default “, the reading of an album never starts in shuffle mode. However, the auditor can opt for this function.
January 2021: Pascal Obispo goes solo
The singer wants to do without record companies and those global streaming giants that offer “the illusion of free music”. On January 8, 2021, Pascal Obispo therefore launched his own application, Obispo All Access, which notably includes all of his discography, accessible for the sum of €5.99 per month, i.e. “the price of two chocolate pancakes”, he euphemizes. In an interview with RTL, he then justifies his choice: “Streaming is completely lacking in humanity. On these platforms you have 30 million titles. Me, I made a small store. » A year later, we do not yet know the number of fans won over.
2016: Xavier Dolan reformats Netflix
An artistic crime. To shoot his film Mommy (2014), the Canadian director opted for a square format, except for an anthology scene in which Steve, a bipolar teenager, spreads his arms and temporarily widens the format with wonderwall, of Oasis, in the background. But the British branch of Netflix did not respect this change. Xavier Dolan then split an open letter taken up on January 4, 2016 by the Huffington Post : “You break the emotional power of the scene (…). Now, who, apart from me, can arrogate the right to alter this work as you have done? No one. » Pleading the technical error, Netflix has rectified the format.
2015: Taylor Swift crunches Apple Music
Apple decides, in June 2015, to launch its streaming platform. Shortly before, the singer announced that her album 1989, released a few months earlier, will not be available on Apple Music. Stake of the confrontation: a story of big money. Apple wanted to offer three months of subscription on a trial basis… without any compensation for labels and artists. A measurement “shocking, disappointing and completely against this progressive and generous company”, shouts the singer. The multinational then reconsiders its decision. Since then, Taylor Swift has received Apple Music’s award for best songwriter in 2020.