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 "I'm getting contacted by lots
of young artists who have millions of streams
from 200,000 monthly listeners and don't make
the minimum wage," musician Tom Gray from
English indie band Gomez told Reuters.
Gray has founded the Broken Record campaign to
pressure the industry into doing more for the
people who make the music.
While platinum-selling Gomez has racked up
millions of plays on Spotify, the market-leading
online music platform, this amounts to "a few
pennies" of income for Gray.
That is because the money paid by consumers for
major online music platforms goes into a central
pot that is distributed to artists according to
market share.
So if someone pays 10 pounds ($12) a month and
listened only to Gomez, their money would still
find its way to the world's top artists and
their record labels.
The streaming companies say they are doing their
utmost to help artists during the lockdown.
Spotify has pledged to match donations to music
charities up to a total of $10 million and Apple
Music launched a $50 million fund for
independent record labels and distributors.
The Help Musicians UK charity has paid 8.5
million pounds to 17,500 musicians who have run
out of money for essentials.
But many more musicians are struggling, shut out
of state lockdown support programmes because
their incomes are irregular. A Musicians Union
survey earlier this month found 38% were not
eligible for government help.
"I know how hard this is already for so many
people and I can see how truly terrifyingly bad
it's going to get," said Gray, whose campaign is
backed by Boy George, John Grant, and the Shins.
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 Hot Chip, a popular
electro-tinged indie band, had planned a global
tour through 2020. Now, the musicians and their
nine-strong crew have lost much of their income,
despite millions listening to their music online
every month - a fanbase that might have earned
Hot Chip a "bed of gold" decades ago.
"We ourselves don't know where the next chunk of
cash is really coming from," said Al Doyle, a
member of Hot Chip. Despite a
likely 25% drop in global music revenues this
year because of the pandemic, the industry is
set to double in value by 2030, a Goldman Sachs
research note published this month showed. But
many artists have doubts about their future.
"If coronavirus continues like this for the
whole of the summer, then really that's going to
feel like my life in music has been decimated,"
said Theo Bard, a songwriter who was hoping to
promote an album set for release this summer.
Doyle from Hot Chip conceded that only consumers
might have the power to redress the balance, by
buying music directly from their favourite
artists's websites or via online platforms such
as Bandcamp where the artists control the
prices.
"If it's unsuccessful, then I think you'll find
lots of mid-level artists, probably kind of on
our level, deciding that this is not a feasible
way to support ourselves."
(Writing by Andy Bruce; editing by Philippa
Fletcher)
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