Paris (AFP)

Spotify, the world leader in music platforms, launched a website on Thursday to try to shed light on the artists' remuneration circuit, a model that has been under fire from critics in recent months.

"We are launching this website worldwide (spotify.com/loudandclear) to say we can hear you loud and clear," Antoine Monin, music director for Spotify France and Benelux, told AFP.

"The artists are asking for more clarity, explanations, transparency on the remuneration linked to music streaming and the contribution of Spotify, continues the manager. Spotify is not the only actor concerned, but as it is a leader in the market, he is one of those most concerned. We hear these criticisms, we take them to heart ".

Robert Smith, leader of The Cure, had thus retweeted the international petition "Justice at Spotify", which asks the platform to better remunerate artists.

The explanatory site, launched Thursday afternoon in English before other versions, is accessible to all.

A small video explains what the general public ignores: music platforms do not pay artists directly, but rights holders.

"These are the labels, distributors, aggregators, collective management organizations, etc., which work for the artists and are essential collaborators. Each has different agreements with the artists", explains Antoine Monin.

"We explain how much money we put in the pipes but we can not know where it goes in detail", schematically the person in charge.

The current system of distribution of platforms - a common pot that benefits the most streamed artists, to summarize - does not allow to establish the average income of a stream either, contrary to popular belief.

Spotify (345 million users claimed worldwide) establishes that 57,000 artists on its platform concentrate 90% of streams.

The platform claims to have donated $ 5 billion in total to rights holders in 2020.

The SoundCloud platform has abandoned the dominant software, opting for a new system of remuneration for artists based on the listening times of each.

A recent study by the National Music Center (CNM) in France found that changing the distribution system would not change much for currently marginalized artists.

© 2021 AFP