Spotify's controversial revenue policy for artists has been seeing significant decreases over the past year. Four of the five artists nominated for Best Songwriter at the 2025 Grammy Awards are expected to skip out on Spotify's Grammy afterparty because of their growing frustrations with the company. The four songwriters include Jessi Alexander, Jessie Jo Dillon, Amy Allen, and RAYE.

This announcement comes in light of changes in the platform's subscription services, including offering audiobooks to download for premium members. According to Billboard, Dillon and Allen confirm that this feature cut off artist payout by almost $150 million last year alone. The company itself, however, has seen record highs, with quarterly revenues reaching $4.098 billion and operating profits exceeding $284 million.

The artists nominated in the songwriting category have come to criticize Spotify's unfair profit distribution and the company will see the real-time effects of this when they hold their afterparty on January 28th. As a nominee for the second year in a row, Jessie Jo Dillon, known for his work with artists like Post Malone and Morgan Wallen, tells Billboard News:

“After some thought, I couldn’t in good conscience support this initiative given their approach to bundling royalties. It is very nice to be individually honored, but it is better for me and my entire songwriter community to be paid fairly for our art. There are no songs without songwriters.”

In addition, representatives from Allen's PR team confirmed she was forgoing the event due to royalty cuts. RAYE, who has written for popstars from Beyonce to Charli XCX, says she never committed to performing at the ceremony, according to one of her reps, and adds that she's always been “an outspoken advocate on behalf of songwriters’ rights igniting an industry-wide dialogue on the topic.”

As the company's profits rise, the trust between the platform and the artists have been decreasing. Current CEO Daniel Ek is earning more than the highest charting artists while minimizing royalty costs, including the company laying off 1,500 employees by the end of 2023, and allegedly prioritizing playlist slots with "ghost artists" to increase the service's profitability.