Co-founder of People Under The Stairs Thes One did a two-part interview this week with KevinNottingham.com. The producer/emcee shared his opinion of popular music streaming service Spotify, and criticized the technology for its inability to help a group like P.U.T.S. properly generate revenue.
“[People Under The Stairs] had done a test run [with Spotify], we had re-released Stepfather. We put that up through all the different avenues — we put it up on iTunes, we put it on Spotify, here and there. We obviously didn’t want to release the new record and be flying blind and not know where the money was coming in and how.” Thes noted that in comparison, Spotify brought in the least revenue. “I was absolutely shocked to see how little money comes in from Spotify. It was like a .0001% compared to iTunes. So I’ve told a lot of people I know, friends of mine like say Ugly Duckling who’s getting ready to release their record, put it up on iTunes or do whatever you gotta do but absolutely do not put the whole record on Spotify. You’re basically gonna be hemorrhaging money.”
The veteran added an overall disappointment with the digital music revolution, “Music should be treated with a certain respect and gravity. It’s not something that you get a link to, you listen to it and then you throw it in your trash can digitally. We definitely are working to try and build up that frenzy.”
Thes One is presently at work on his solo album, Wonderful Radio as P.U.T.S. prepares to tour with Mac Miller. The full interview at KevinNottingham.com can be read here.
