While streaming is a bargain for consumers, it creates a multitude of problems for songwriters, who struggle to receive a fair wage, and limits access into the industry. Artists Aside takes a look into the flawed system we use to listen to our favourite music. 

Songwriters are the foundation of the music industry, without them there would be no songs, no albums, no tours. Yet, they are still having to fight in order to receive fair pay. More often than not they are expected to offer up their time in sessions for free, only getting paid royalties upon a song’s release. And, even then, in today’s streaming world, the pay they do get is minimal. The hard truth is, unless they are in the top percentage of songwriters, the job doesn’t bring in enough money to survive off. 

Lavender Rodriguez is a songwriter and works as the Music Writers Officer for the Musician’s Union, a UK trade union.“The music industry has come a long way, especially with streaming. And streaming is obviously incredibly accessible for consumers, but not for songwriters in terms of remuneration.”

According to the Musician’s Union website, ‘at least 92% of musicians say that less than 5% of their earnings come from online streaming.’

Nick Atkinson is a successful songwriter, having written for the likes of Lewis Capaldi, Noah Kahan and Gabrielle Aplin. “The gap between the haves and the have nots is getting broader. We’re faced with this issue at the moment of this upper echelon of writers who are making incredible amounts of money, and everyone else is just scrabbling around,” he says.

“I fear I’ve been very lucky. I came out of the physical era, so I caught the back end of that, but I’ve certainly seen my income decreasing. I worry for the younger writers. I don’t know how they can do it. How do they afford to move to London, pay their bills, or even travel down to London on the daily?”

However, last year did bring about one positive change. In July 2025, UK major record labels committed to introducing a £75 per diem. This is to cover the daily expenses associated with working as a songwriter, such as travel to sessions, accommodation and food. 

“Especially with independent songwriters, you’d be paying that out of pocket. If you’re getting such low royalty rates anyway, and then you’re having to give so much just to exist in the studio in the hopes that it will get royalties, you’re essentially at the bottom of the pile compared to everyone else,” says Lavender.

“It means that access, especially for working class people, for minorities, to get those opportunities to be in those spaces because that financial inaccessibility is now taken out because UK major labels are going to cover that.”

But this is still not a wage, it is not payment for the time they have sacrificed to write for an artist. “It’s brutal and happens a lot in camps and sessions,” says Lavender. 

Nick says: “It’s something I’m constantly having to explain to my friends who are not in music, we don’t get paid. In any other industry, it would be criminal.”

It means that often songwriters have to supplement this work with other jobs. For Lavender, this is their job with the Musician’s Union. They say, “The average musician is earning around £20,000, which is under minimum wage, and that’s encompassing everything, not just the royalties, but maybe sessioning or teaching. Most musicians do have part-time jobs because being a songwriter isn’t enough, unfortunately, to sustain themselves.

“I think people understand that it’s an issue but it involves tackling something as easily accessible as streaming, which is really cost effective to people, and you don’t want to take away access to music.

“Songwriters deserve to be paid fairly, it’s just how we go about changing that system, which is hard to break away from,” Lavender says. “As a union, we’ve campaigned for ensuring that minimum royalty rate is upped to reflect modern streaming and ensuring that you know if you’re on a label that you can negotiate your contract to reflect a better rate.”

However, there are things that consumers can also do in order to better support songwriters, who often produce their own music as well. This includes buying songs rather than streaming, buying merchandise, going to gigs, all things that help put money in their pockets. Because without them, our favourite music would not exist. SA

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