A few months ago Hilary discovered on her Spotify app. some of my songs were now being credited by our distributor, Ditto Music to Carole Pardoe. I asked our friend Carole (who wrote one song on Good Mornin’ Dad) about this and she said she had never even heard of Ditto Music!
I have been pursuing this with Ditto Music for sometime now, and it gets worse and worse with every email. Here is their last reply.
‘Good morning, Paul, thank you for your detailed explanation! I’ve just checked on your account, and I can confirm that the artist Carole Pardoe was always the primary artist.As for the Paul Kyler, there is no artist with this name on your Ditto account.’
I don’t know of this is merely incompetence or if others are seeking to make some profit from the songs that Father entrusted to me. Sadly this would not be the first time this has happened.
We know we have been called here to challenge the ‘American idols’ of Fame and Fortune, and so reputation and remuneration are not the goal for us. As Paul wrote to the Philippians.
“But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,”
Philippians 1:18
When I mentioned this craziness at last night’s concert, a friend commented to me later, “Your music is too sacred to be on Spotify.”
I smiled at the time, but later felt the Lord highlight to me the evil of this system which most have come to accept as ‘normal’
Essentially these Babylonian corporations steal the songwriter’s songs, cornering the market and then giving them a fraction of a penny for every stream. This means that even very popular artists get very little for their millions of plays. Over the years my income from these digital platforms has hardly covered Hilary’s monthly Spotify subscription!
We are now reflecting again on the practical implications of the injunction regarding Mystery Babylon, which we have been in captivity to, “Come ye out of her.” (Rev.14:7)
The primary issue here is walking free of the ‘love of money’ in order to be the holy Bride of Christ…….hence the title of this blog, ‘Without Spotify or Wrinkle.’ (Eph. 5;25,26)
Dan Adler, a distinguished local leader who invited us to do the pre release concert at his ‘Music Factory’ a few months ago, recommended to people, that aware of this current reality they should pay something for the artist’s CD……..they can then ‘put it on the shelf’ and feel free to listen on a digital platform if they wanted to, knowing then, they had not been party to this ‘theft’
In the light of this if you have not already done so, I would encourage you to go to Ben’s website, buy a CD or download the new album, and make a donation.
I would also encourage you to make this information about ‘the music business’ known to others who are unaware.
Jesus said, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.” (Luke.5:17)
I think Ben deserves to be honored in this way even as he has honored me in this album, and we have together sought to honor the Lord from whom we have received these gifts which we in turn want to share as widely as we can.
Thank you.