Songwriters Opt to Boycott Spotify’s Grammy Party Over Royalty Cuts

Spotify is making musicians mad yet again, and this time for a pretty good reason.

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Today, it was announced that a majority of songwriters who were nominated for Songwriter of the Year at this year’s Grammy Awards will be intentionally opting out of Spotify’s Grammy party. The songwriters in question cited the streaming service’s royalty policy as the main reason why they’ll be skipping the event.

RAYE, Amy Allen, Jessi Alexander, and Jessie Joe Dillon have all announced that they will not attend the Spotify-held event. Both Allen and Dillon confirmed to Billboard that they made the choice to skip the party after the recent change in Spotify’s subscription tiers. That change has bundled audiobooks with premium services. The change will likely result in a substantial $150 million cut to songwriters’ payout on the platform within a year.

What Songwriters Are Saying About Spotify’s New Policy Change and Why They Are Boycotting

Jessie Jo Dillon was nominated this year for the second year in a row. She has songwriting credits under big songs for Megan Moroney, Post Malone, and more. She told Billboard that she couldn’t “in good conscience” provide support to Spotify’s initiative after the announcement that they would be bundling royalties.

“It is very nice to be individually honored, but it is better for me and my entire songwriter community to be paid fairly for our art,” said Dillon. “There are no songs without songwriters.”

Kudos to NSAI Board Member Jessie Jo Dillon, longtime member Jessi Alexander and other nominees for boycotting SPOTIFY's Songwriter of the Year party . Instead of an insulting PR stunt pay songwriters fairly while your execs cash in hundreds of millions! https://t.co/FCmFLAlXXB pic.twitter.com/rkKpGhfhEx

— Nashville Songwriters Association Int'l. (@NSAIofficial) January 10, 2025

RAYE, another nominee, is known for writing a wealth of tunes for Rita Ora, Halle, Jennifer Lopez, and her own produced works. She announced that she never committed to attending the party in the first place. However, she is an “outspoken advocate” for songwriters and will thus not be attending the party.

Just as well, Amy Allen’s reps announced that she would not be attending the party directly because of Spotify’s pay cuts. Allen was nominated for a number of songs she wrote for Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, and more.

For the record, Spotify earned record-high sales in 2024. The company’s controversial CEO, Daniel Ek, is currently earning substantially more than the highest-streamed artists on the Spotify platform. There has also been quite a bit of outrage over allegations that Spotify has been filling user playlists with “ghost” artists in order to further cut royalty costs.

This year’s Grammy Awards will be held on February 2.

Photo by Serene Lee/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

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