Singer and songwriter Aloe Blacc penned a personal essay for Wired on songwriters receiving little to no pay for their songs. With Taylor Swift removing all of her music from Spotify this week, Blacc spoke out on her decision, and revealed that one streaming site payed him $4,000 after playing his collaboration with EDM maverick Avicii, "Wake Me Up" 168 million times.

"The abhorrently low rates songwriters are paid by streaming services—enabled by outdated federal regulations—are yet another indication our work is being devalued in today's marketplace," he said.

"Consider the fact that it takes roughly one million spins on Pandora for a songwriter to earn just $90. Avicii's release "Wake Me Up!" that I co-wrote and sing, for example, was the most streamed song in Spotify history and the 13th most played song on Pandora since its release in 2013, with more than 168 million streams in the US. And yet, that yielded only $12,359 in Pandora domestic royalties— which were then split among three songwriters and our publishers. In return for co-writing a major hit song, I've earned less than $4,000 domestically from the largest digital music service."

Blacc, who also penned his own singles like the chart topping track "The Man," says that the laws regarding payment for songwriters need to be rewritten. He also included that many of the laws towards songwriters and publishers haven't been updated since the invention of the iPod in 2001.

"Updating the nation's antiquated music licensing system will better serve the needs of not only music creators, like me, but businesses that use our music, consumers and the global marketplace for music," he said. "But the digital music services that see a financial advantage in maintaining the status quo are fighting hard to obstruct any meaningful reform. After all, if songwriters cannot afford to make music, who will?"

Check out his essay in full here. Do you agree with his statements?

Source: Wired | Photo Credit: Splash News