Portishead‘s Geoff Barrow has revealed that he has only made £1,700 from online streaming.

Barrow took to Twitter earlier this week (April 13), claiming that despite his music being streamed approximately 34,000,000 times, he’s only made £1,700 after tax.

Barrow wrote: “34,000,000 streams Income After tax = £1700 Thank U @apple @YouTube @Spotify especially @UMG_News for selling our music so cheaply.”


Barrow added that the sum was a “rough estimate”, but maintained that it was “not far off” the exact figure. Barrow’s claim would mean that he and his band receive approximately 0.000005 pence per stream.

Barrow further revealed his thoughts on streaming, when he tweeted: “I’ve got nothing against streaming a record. But I’ve got a lot against people giving my work away for free.” The musician also acknowledged that bands such as Portishead are not the ones that will suffer the most, but instead it’s the “young bands like the ones in [Barrow’s own] label Invada”.

See Barrow’s tweets in full below.

http://storify.com/nmemagazine/geoff-barrow-says-how-much-portishead-have-made-fr

Geoff Barrow recently hinted at plans for Portishead’s follow-up to 2008’s ‘Third’.

He told Rolling Stone: “I am calibrating my brain to Portishead mode and got some ideas of what I want to do there — at long last.”


Last year, Portishead’s Adrian Utley revealed that the band members were “clearing our schedules” in order to work on their fourth album. Utley was speaking at By:Larm Festival in Oslo in February 2014.

“We’re clearing our schedules so we can get on with it, otherwise it will be another 10 years,” he commented, referencing how busy individual members are with other projects, as well as the 11-year gap between Portishead’s second and third albums. Utley added that he had recently discussed plans for a new LP with Barrow. “We were both really enthusiastic, and enthusiasm counts for a lot in Portishead world,” he said.

