The payment systems for artists on major music platforms such as Spotify have long been debated.
Broadly speaking, it is about the companies having a large pot of money that they distribute to the various authors according to how many gigs each person has.
But now a new player has entered the market that upsets many in the industry.
It is the music company Strange Fruits, which above all produces short, no more than 30 seconds long, atmospheric clips with, among other things, rain sounds.
Which now competes with several of the major world artists on Spotify.
The company's "songs" are only just so long that they can be registered as a stream on Spotify and therefore eligible for payment.
The songs are specially developed for sleeping and are expected to generate more than ten million gigs a day.
Several thanks to a playlist produced by Sleep Fruits with 235 of the company's songs alone.
The playlist is today the eighth most played playlist on Spotify.
"Extremely immoral"
But not everyone is happy about Strange Fruit's success.
Many believe that the popularity of these short sound clips reduces the revenue until they actually put money and effort into creating music.
"Cutting together rain sounds into 31-second clips to maximize your gigs and grab as much money as possible is extremely immoral," Dustin Boyer, CEO of Venture Music, told Rolling Stone.
- They only take money straight from the artists' pockets.
I really hope Spotify does something about this, he continues.
But the Dutch producer Stef Van Vugt, who founded Strange Fruit, cannot grasp why what they are doing would be wrong and says to Rolling Stone:
- Why should you keep slamming down those who are indie?
Finally, someone who is not Universal, Sony or Warner has managed to get a percentage of the music market.
Spotify has not yet commented on the case.