Five Iron Maiden albums are no longer available on the Spotify platform. They are: “Live After Death” (1985), “No Prayer For the Dying” (1990), “Rock in Rio” (2002), “Death on the Road” (2005) and “The Book of Souls” (2015 ). In certain cases, a few tracks continue to exist on the streaming service.
On the Spotify user community forum, a fan from Finland was the first to notice the absence of the records. The matter was also discussed by Collectors Room.
So far, there is no official justification. However, some subscribers even threaten to cancel their subscription to the service if the problem is not resolved soon — especially as the catalog remains complete on other platforms.
It is not the first occasion that something like this has happened to Iron Maiden and it has also happened to other artists on the platform. Sometimes withdrawals are temporary.
The Iron Maiden catalog
The presence of a major artist’s catalog on a streaming platform depends on contracts involving record labels and publishers. In many cases, the work of a musician or band belongs to several companies in the industry, but this is not the case with Iron Maiden.
The Brits’ albums, EPs and singles were fully owned by EMI until 2015, when the group joined the casting of Warner’s Parlophone label. This makes the disappearance of albums on Spotify even more mysterious.
Spotify Policies
It is not new that many artists are dissatisfied with another Spotify issue, also involving more streaming services: remuneration policies. Dani Filth (Cradle of Filth) has already defined the company as the biggest criminal in the world, while Mike Portnoy directly criticized the company’s CEO, Daniel Ek, for saying that the low amounts paid to artists occur because they don’t record enough albums.
Recently, Neil Young removed his music from Spotify, following controversy involving a podcast’s anti-vax stances. Other artists, with his colleagues from Crosby, Nash, Stills & Young and Joni Mitchell, joined him in the situation.
In recent days, Spotify announced new artist remuneration policies that will come into force in 2024. Now songs will have a minimum number of annual plays for royalties to be paid, which should harm smaller artists.
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