Five Grammy nominees—Jessi Alexander, Amy Allen, Jessie Jo Dillon, RAYE, and possibly Sabrina Carpenter—will potentially skip the Songwriter of the Year Grammy party set for Jan. 28 due to their boycott of Spotify.
The boycott is in light of Spotify reducing the royalties given to songwriters while increasing the premium membership for Spotify users to make way for more audiobooks. The only artists who have explicitly confirmed their absence are Artists Jessie Jo Dillon and Amy Allen in their interview with Billboard, especially since Spotify decreased songwriter royalties by $150 million.
Amy Allen was nominated for four Grammys this year for her contribution to the Short n’ Sweet album by Sabrina Carpenter and the song “Please Please Please” from the same album, the song “Better Together” from the movie “TROLLS Band Together,” and for Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical.
Jessie Jo Dillon is nominated for Songwriter of the Year for the second year. She is a songwriter signed with Big Machine Records and has written songs for artists like Kelsi Ballerini, Justin Bieber, Post Malone, and Morgan Wallen.
Jessi Alexander has two Grammy nominations, this year running for Best Song Written For Visual Media and Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical.
RAYE is a British singer-songwriter who has even written songs for Beyonce. She was nominated for Best New Artist, Songwriter Non-classical, and Engineered Album Non-classical.
It’s no new thing that artists boycott award ceremonies. In 2021, the Weeknd vowed to boycott the Grammys from that year on due to the controversies surrounding the nominations. His album “After Hours” dominated the Billboard 200 for four consecutive weeks and set the record for the biggest streaming week ever for an R&B album. Its standout single, the smash hit “Blinding Lights,” continues to shatter Billboard chart records more than a year after its release. Yet, despite these remarkable achievements, he shockingly received zero Grammy nominations in 2021.
Artists and fans alike hope that Spotify will improve its pay structure, ensuring fair compensation for artists while maintaining easy access to music for listeners.
