Nelly Furtado has urged her fellow musicians to honour Prince’s memory by joining the fight for better royalties from performances and videos posted on YouTube.
The singer has joined rocker Nikki Sixx, who recently helped to launch a campaign calling on executives at Google to match the money paid by music streaming services whenever users play one of their videos online.
“YouTube is paying out about a sixth of what Spotify and Apple pay artists,” he told British newspaper The Guardian last month. “We are not telling them how to run their business. We’re saying treat artists fairly the way other streaming services are”
Now Furtado has taken a stand alongside Sixx and fellow music veteran Debbie Harry in a new Guardian article, in which she recalls Prince fighting for his rights as an artist against major labels.
“I was lucky enough to meet and open for Prince and see him live several times over the years,” she wrote. “He stood for pure music and honouring music with proper reverence. Prince’s death reminds all of us artists to wake up and smell the coffee.”
She openly admits she is still “educating” herself about the issue of royalty payments, but from her research so far, she claims she has found “there is certainly a lack of transparency and a lot of spin going on”. “I have realised that this stuff matters, and if creators don’t fight for what’s right, who will?,” she asked.
She continued, “I love YouTube, but I think it is underpaying and getting away with it. I know the truth hurts, but someone’s got to tell it.”
Furtado goes on to criticise the way YouTube bosses have responded to attacks by Sixx and Harry by “shaming” them for “questioning your practices”, insisting they only want what’s fair.
Highlighting the struggle of independent artists like herself, compared to musicians protected by major labels, she added, “Our music is as valuable as theirs. We are all artists. We are all songwriters. We all have a voice. “From one independent artist to every artist, let’s fight for the future of what Prince helped to create: The Holy Church of Music. My message to YouTube is: put a little more in the collection basket when you come to pray here, please. Amen.”
YouTube officials have yet to respond to Furtado’s article.
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