Written evidence submitted by Leaone

I am an independent songwriter and music artist, that goes by the name Leaone.

In 2017 I licensed 2 EP’s for release on Fierce Panda Records. Each EP contained 4 songs. I self-financed the production and promotion of the 2 EP’s and their digital releases. The total combined cost to me for the production and promotion of these two EP’s was £10,000.

I never received any payments from the record company (Fierce Panda).

During September 2018, I was going through a difficult financial crisis, and contacted the record company, since I realised I had never received a penny from them - for digital sales/streaming.

I was soon told by the record company that my total digital income was £401.38, and that 50% - £200.69 could be paid to me.

I argued my case to the record company, that since they had made no financial contribution to the production or promotion of the records (the 2 EP’s), that they should pay the whole amount to me.

Their response was that I had not taken “into account the two radio campaigns (for 'swallow' and 'goldtooth') we ran in-house at 250 squids a pop”.

So, we can now assume the record label’s costs at £500, and mine at £10,000. That’s a total investment of £10,500.

At this stage, I severed ties with Fierce Panda Records, since I realised that if we were arguing over £200, that they were in no position to advance my music career. I told the record label they could keep all the money and to just give me back control of the rights to my records (the 2 EP’s), which they did.

I’d like to point out that traditionally a record label wouldn't pay the artist anything until the record company’s costs had been recouped. So here I faced a situation which was totally in reverse. I had fronted nearly all the costs, yet they were expecting to still take 50% of all sales from the get-go.

The total royalty income I received from the PRS for that period was £330.62.

So that is a total income of £732, making the project an overall loss of £9768, and a personal loss to me, of £9669.38

In terms of the poor revenue created from the project you might argue that the music wasn’t very good, and that it didn’t receive plays or radio support, but the songs were played multiple times on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC 6 music, BBC Suffolk, and BBC Norfolk. Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens, Jo Whiley, Chris Hawkins, and Arielle Free all played my records.

I don’t know my exact streaming figures at that time (September 2018), but even if we take my total Spotify streaming figures of today - 185952, my earnings haven’t gone nowhere near far enough in terms of recouping the costs that I have paid out to make the records (producer fees, mixing fees, mastering fees, radio pluggers, PR people etc).

185952 x £0.0028 (Spotify’s average pay-out per stream) = £520.66

£520 is not even enough money to get one song professionally recorded, mixed and mastered, and it’s also less than you would need to pay a radio plugger to solicit just one song to radio producers. Also, please, note that nearly 100% of that was never paid out to me, and was kept by the record company.

One million spotify streams only generates (approximately) £2800, and as you can see from the expenses needed to generate barely a scratch on those figures, it is very clear the model is broken and that things simply don’t add up.

From my personal experience, it has become very clear to me that the music industry is unscrupulous.

It seems that the tech companies are profiting greatly, but the very people who produce the product that they are thriving off, are left extremely short changed.

Under the current model, things just don’t add up, and the music industry is simply a playground for the rich.

My music has been compared in the press with many outstanding artists such as David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Elliot Smith, Leonard Cohen, Scott Walker, Adele, Coldplay, and Lana Del Rey.

During July of 2018 I was successful in receiving an International Development fund from the Arts council to travel to Brooklyn, NYC to collaborate with songwriter and producer Tom Marsh (of Lana Del Rey fame). I stayed in Bushwick for just under a month and worked with Tom in Greenpoint. Within the trip Tom introduced me to another great music producer and engineer Abe Seiferth.

Tom and Abe are leaders in their field, and collectively they have worked on projects with artists such as Lana Del Rey, Coldplay, The National, LCD Soundsystem and Bon Iver. I returned once again during 2019 to work with both Tom and Abe. I now have a completed 9 track album, mixed and mastered, of which I am immensely proud of. But given the current economic climate of the music industry and in particular the atrocious pay-outs by the music streaming platforms, I am left totally perplexed as to how I should release the record, and if I ever will.