“I went from a stage of owning my music and playing it anytime I Bl**dcl**t want to a stage where if I don’t subscribe, I can’t hear my Bl**dcl**t music,” Reggae legend Buju Banton declares in an upcoming episode on Drink Champs with N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN.
Banton makes his first appearance on the popular hip-hop online show, taking on the major digital companies that have changed music ownership in the digital age, lamenting the loss of control artists have over their work due to the rise of streaming.
“When did this happen to me?” he said as N.O.R.E. laughed. “And we all sit here and laugh like it’s a Bl**dCl**t joke. We want back we music,” Banton said.
Buju’s frustratingly reflects on the shift from physical ownership to digital streaming which happened largely while he was serving a ten year sentence for cocaine charges . “A guy take I music and puts it in the cloud and I can’t get my music to physically play my music when I want here my music, yet they not paying I nuttn (anything) fi I music… PENNIES!” he screamed. “and It never cost I pennies to make this Bl**dcl**t. You tricked we,” he said.
He then called out other musicians who have remained silent on the subject saying, “and the players that are supposed to speak up about this modern-day bl**dcl**t robbery and stealing of our intellectual property are silent.”
Last year Snoop Dogg expressed similar sentiment over the meager earnings from streaming platforms despite high streaming numbers. In an interview with The Business Untitled podcast he shared that despite having a billion streams on Spotify he made only a few thousand dollars. “My publisher hit me. I said, ‘Break that down. How much money is that?’ That s**t wasn’t even $45,000,” he said.
Spotify revised its royalty model in early 2024, introducing a minimum threshold for annual streams before a track earns royalties. Tracks not meeting this threshold will have their earnings redirected to a pool shared by more popular artists. This proposed change has sparked criticism, with concerns that it will widen the gap between smaller and larger artists.
The Evolution of Music Consumption
Buju’s impassioned critique taps into a broader conversation about the evolution of the music industry. The journey from physical media to digital streaming has been both revolutionary and controversial.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the advent of MP3 technology and peer-to-peer file sharing services like Napster disrupted the traditional music distribution model. Artists and record labels faced significant financial losses as music piracy surged. In response, the industry had to adapt, leading to the rise of legal digital music stores such as iTunes in 2003.
However, the real game-changer came with the advent of streaming services. Spotify, launched in 2006, offered a new model where users could access vast libraries of music for a monthly fee or for free with advertisements. By 2016, Spotify had 100 million users worldwide, of which 40 million were paying subscribers. The model promised convenience for consumers and a potential revenue stream for artists and labels. Other platforms like Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music soon followed, further cementing streaming as the primary mode of music consumption. Still the the leading audio streaming subscription service, Spotify has with more than 626 million users, including 246 million subscribers in more than 180 markets.
The Impact on Artists
While streaming has made music more accessible to listeners worldwide, it has also raised significant concerns about fair compensation for artists. Buju Banton’s last album “Born For Greatness” released September 8, 2023 via Gargamel Music, Def Jam and Roc Nation has sold 2600 combined units of streams and sales in the U.S. according to Luminate. Of that amount 500 pure copies were and 2.2 million on-demand streams.
Buju sold out two nights at the UBS Arena on July 13 and 14, the first for any reggae artist on New York City. Banton’s Drink Champs episode will be aired on Thursday, August 8 on YouTube.
