Dance labels kick streaming services to the kerb

A HOLDING COMPANY that represents over 200 independent dance music labels is pulling pretty much all of its content from paid for streaming services Spotify, Simfy, Rdio and Napster.

"STHoldings can confirm that we have taken the decision to remove all STHoldings distributed content [through the] music services," it said in a statement, in which it explained that it thought it could make more money for its titles from other channels.

"Despite these services offering promotion to many millions of music listeners we have concerns that these services cannibalise the revenues of more traditional digital services."

The firm is also reacting to calls for action from its labels, and it said that the labels were worried that they were losing revenues to the streaming services.

"The majority of [our labels] do not want their music on such services because of the poor revenues and the detrimental affect on sales," it added.

"Add to that, the feeling that their music looses it's specialness by it's exploitation as a low value/free commodity. Quoting one of our labels 'Let's keep the music special, fuck Spotify'".

STHoldings offered its labels the choice of whether to stay on the music streaming web sites, and out of 238 four decided to remain. The rest will have their content pulled.

Labels covered by STHoldings include Dub Police, Sub Soldiers and Creative Source, which releases dub step and drum and bass tracks by artists like Rusfo, and Hyperdub, where award-winning act Burial makes its home.

We learned earlier today that some people believe that access to low cost streaming services could help to cut down on the amount of material that people download illegally. Perhaps this message has not hit STHoldings, or perhaps its labels would prefer to sell through other avenues with clearer revenue returns.

Spotify has been accused of short-changing artists, and back in 2010 it was revealed that Lady Gaga had earned less that $200 dollars, despite one of her songs being played over a million times on its services. The company disputed this, however, saying that the amount quoted would be just a percentage of Lady Gaga's overall earnings.

We have reached out to the music streaming firms mentioned and will update this article when they respond. µ