Taylor Swift and John “Papa” Gros have a lot in common when it comes to their opinions on the state of the music industry.
Swift rocked the music world over the weekend by penning an open letter to Apple asking the computer giant to change its policy of not paying musicians royalties during the free three month trial period of the new Apple Music streaming service.
It didn’t take long for Apple to step up and reverse course, pledging to pay musicians for any music streamed during the initial free trial period of new customers.
Not too long after, Gros took to Facebook to share an image of a Papa Grows Funk royalty check he received from Music Reports on June 15, 2015, for a whopping seven cents.
Photo courtesy of John Gros.
“This is why I’m thankful for Taylor Swift standing up for the indie artists like me,” Gros wrote in a note accompanying the picture. “This is an income check for royalties earned via internet streaming. That’s right, 7 cents. There’s got to be a better way.”
In an email conversation, Gros said he gets checks like this one from streaming sources once each quarter, but the amount does vary occasionally.
“I have two checks for $.01,” he said. “I want to spend $75 to frame them.”
The arguments for greater profit shares for musicians and copyright holders are as old as the ability to stream music on the internet, and Gros said his opinions and experiences are by no means out of the ordinary.
The lasting legacy of Swift’s open letter will be the clear and immediate result it produced.
“It’s nice having someone like Taylor Swift, who is an intelligent communicator, to stick up for the cause,” Gros said. “Who cares what her music is? She and her machine understand the issues and know how to make them known to the listeners and the resellers. Metallica has been very vocal for decades about this, but no one cared to listen. They are right, but why weren’t they heard?”
While Gros said he isn’t entirely opposed to the concept of streaming music online, he said no one knows what the best music media vehicle will be.
“All I know is good honest music will win in the long run,” he said “At least Taylor Swift understands.”
