Sevdaliza might have more than 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, but that doesn’t mean much when it comes to making ends meet. The Iranian-Dutch artist has made waves in the electronic-pop sphere with her experimental music, but that seemingly amounts to a drop in the bucket when it comes to her bank account.
“I have been an independent artist for 12 years releasing music, I’ve built everything including a fanbase without majors, and I still can’t afford to take a week off,” tweeted Sevdaliza, adding that on average, 1 million streams amount to an artist being paid $2,500. “Deduct taxes, management and cost of product. How are we expected to ever make music sustainable?” wondered the artist who once collaborated with Grimes.
