Music Venue Trust (MVT), a UK charity that aims to protect and improve UK grassroots music venues, has called on music streaming giant Spotify to support smaller venues.
Following Spotify’s $310m (£236m/€281m) deal with Spanish LaLiga side FC Barcelona that includes naming rights for its stadium, Camp Nou, and shirt sponsorship, the charity called out the decision on Twitter.
“For the amount of money Spotify have agreed to spend on temporarily branding FC Barcelona they could, instead, have secured a permanent future for circa 700 UK grassroots music venues,” MVT said on Twitter.
OWN OUR VENUES@Spotify and @FCBarcelona have just announced a branding deal worth circa $310 million which will see the Spotify logo branded on football jerseys, memorabilia and even on Camp Nou 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Y7dfxTWAQN
— Music Venue Trust (@musicvenuetrust) March 16, 2022
“Such an investment could have unleashed £40m per annum into grassroots artist talent development, from which Spotify, UMG, Sony Music, Warner Records and others are the ultimate beneficiaries.”
Music Venue Trust also revealed that it has attempted to set up a meeting with Spotify to talk about the issue, but has been unable to secure a date to discuss support for the grassroots music sector.
“Spotify could have taken this money, invested it in music infrastructure, kept the asset value, improved economics for every new/emerging artist, and be making a small return on a sensible and protected investment which completely aligns with the best interests of their company,” MVT added.
Image: Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash