Portishead have made their cover of ABBA's "SOS" available through a new royalty arrangement intended to make streaming payouts fairer
Sebastian Gabsch/Geisler-Fotopre/picture-alliance/dpa/AP ImagesPortishead are commercially releasing their 2016 cover of ABBA’s “SOS” for the first time, exclusively through SoundCloud’s fan-powered royalty program, the two groups tell Rolling Stone.
The influential trip-hop act originally recorded their version of the Swedish pop hit for a film soundtrack; until now, it could only be found on YouTube. It now becomes one of the higher-profile songs to be released through SoundCloud’s fan-powered royalty program, which launched in April with lofty goals of making the streaming economy more equitable for artists.
“When we heard that SoundCloud switched to a fairer user-centric payment system of streaming music, we were happy to make it the only place to stream our unreleased version of ABBA’s ‘SOS,’” Portishead’s Geoff Barrow said in a statement. “After recording it years ago for Ben Wheatley’s film High-Rise, we are excited to finally share it with the world, and we are even more excited that all streaming profits are going to a great cause.”
Added Michael Pelczynski, SoundCloud’s head of content and rights holder strategy: “Portishead’s timeless sound has inspired countless artists and given rise to many emerging genres on SoundCloud. We are honored Portishead chose SoundCloud, the only platform where the artist to fan connection is directly rewarded, as the first place to exclusively release their cover of this iconic song.”
The concept of fan-powered royalties has been discussed in the industry since the streaming era began in the 2010s. Right now, services like Apple Music and Spotify pay music rights holders using a formula based on artists’ percentage of the overall streaming market. This means that a song’s individual stream royalties don’t necessarily go directly to the artist who made that song, but rather to a larger pool which is then divvied up based on who has the most listens. Such a model benefits the highest superstars like Drake or Ariana Grande, but smaller and lesser-streamed acts often take less.
Both signed and independent artists have been vocal for years about their frustrations over music streaming’s current business model, unsure why their hundreds of thousands or even millions of streams each month result in comparatively little return. SoundCloud is testing out this alternative model; Spotify, for its part, launched a website in March looking to pull the curtain back on how its business operates, arguing that the old way people quantify listening and success doesn’t make sense in a new listening world in which customers play a flat monthly fee to access more music than ever before.
SoundCloud’s move comes at a time where artists are demanding more clarity as well as change from the streaming giants. In the fan-powered model, a listener’s streaming cash will go directly toward the music they consume, and only there. SoundCloud says fan-powered royalties will benefit rising independent artists, but the system has yet to be proven on a mass level. (Charlie Hellman, Spotify’s head of marketplace, told Rolling Stone in March that its own studies on fan-powered royalty payments didn’t yield a significant shift toward higher payments for smaller artists.)
Beyond the potential cash rewards, advocates for the newer system say fan-powered royalties encourage more transparency.
“If you’re one of the biggest artists, you are going to be rewarded [in the current system],” Merck Mercuriadis, CEO of Hipgnosis Songs Fund, told Rolling Stone in March. “If you’re an indie artist right now, you’re probably losing out to artists that are being given a high promotional profile by the record companies, but that are, in fact, not actually getting the level of spins that the hype might make you think that they’re getting.”
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Mustard has seemingly hit back at comments from Drake‘s producer Gordo, with a little help from JAY-Z.
Gordo, who worked on several Drizzy albums including $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, For All the Dogs and Honestly, Nevermind, called out the “Not Like Us” hitmaker this week after noticing that he was no longer following him on social media.
“omg just noticed mustard unfollowed me on ig…. Sad day,” he wrote sarcastically on X. “headlining chella must of got to his head.”
Despite unfollowing Gordo, Mustard appeared to catch wind of his post and issued a snarky yet subliminal response on Instagram.
Alongside a caption which read: “We not the same,” the producer posted a video of JAY-Z in an interview saying: “Are you kidding me? Who are you guys talking to? What have you done to even have an opinion on what I been doing? You done nothing to even have an opinion.”
Swipe below to see the clip.
Mustard hasn’t exactly been quiet about his disdain for Drake throughout the 6 God’s beef with Kendrick Lamar which erupted last year.
The multi-platinum producer and DJ graced the stage at Tyler, The Creator‘s Camp Flog Gnaw last November, where he surprised the crowd by appearing to cue up Drizzy’s Take Care hit “Crew Love” with The Weeknd.
Before the song could kick into gear, however, Mustard jumped on the mic and yelled, “Sike!” before quickly pivoting to Kendrick, Future and Metro Boomin‘s “Like That,” the blistering collaboration that ignited the heated feud between the Hip Hop titans.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times months earlier, the 10 Summers hitmaker took a shot at Drake’s character while ruling out a reunion with his “Who Do You Love?” collaborator.
“I don’t think I want to make a song with that dude. He’s a strange guy,” he said matter-of-factly.
Mustard would also offer Drake some advice on how to bounce back from the beef, saying to Big Boy: “I’m not speaking at Drake or for him, but a lot of shit that’s going on — the tactics, the things that you do just to get attention. You don’t need to do that. Just make music, man. Make good music and you’ll be fine.”
Mustard also made a surprise appearance during Kendrick Lamar’s historic Super Bowl halftime show performance, joining the Compton superstar for his climactic rendition of “TV Off” which he also produced.
