Bruce Dickinson Thinks Spotify Should Pay Musicians More by Raising Subscription Prices for Customers

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson thinks he's figured out a way for streaming services to pay artists more.

Spotify and other streamers are frequently called out for their low pay rates. But Dickinson noted that these companies aren't making much money either, which is why Spotify laid off 17% of its workforce late last year.

"I think it's a lose-lose situation for everybody," the vocalist said during an interview with the Mexican outlet ATMosferas Magazine. "I mean, you have all the things like Spotify and stuff like who are basically ripping off musicians by paying them next to nothing for playing their work.

"They're not making money [and] the musicians aren't getting paid. New bands can hardly afford to start up, but they do."

The vocalist said streaming services should "actually pay people properly" by charging listeners more and passing the additional revenue on to musicians.

"People listening have to pay more, which I frankly don't object to. And I don't think probably most listeners would," he said. "Maybe less people would listen, but it would be people who care, not people who just do it because it's cheap."

Right now, a Spotify subscription costs just $10.99 and lets customers listen to roughly 100 million different songs.

Some have argued that this cheap, easy access has led many listeners to devalue music. Nowadays, some people stream music all day long as background noise without much thought. A lot of those subscribers would be turned off by a significant price increase.

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Dickinson also believes that full bands and instrumentalists are undervalued these days.

"The music industry has done two things. On the one hand, if you're an artist, it's contracted, as in it's shrunk in terms of the amount of money you get paid for your art — unless you are some massive social media thing, or whatever it is, or unless you're a DJ who turns up with a memory stick and gets paid five times what a band gets paid," he said.

But the vocalist doesn't have a solution for this: "There's not a lot that any one individual can do about that," he said. "You just have to work with the way the world is."

Dickinson's new solo album The Mandrake Project dropped on March 1. The singer will embark on a global tour to support it next month.

Check out a list of the upcoming dates below:

18th April - Diana Theater, Guadalajara, MEXICO

20th April – Pepsi Theatre, Mexico City, MEXICO

24th April – Live Curitiba, Curitiba, BRAZIL

25th April – Pepsi On Stage, Porto Alegre, BRAZIL

27th April – Opera Hall, Brasilia, BRAZIL

28th April – Arena Hall, Belo Horizonte, BRAZIL

30th April – Qualistage, Rio De Janeiro, BRAZIL

2nd May – Quinta Linda, Ribeirao Preto, BRAZIL

4th May – Vibra, Sao Paulo, BRAZIL

16th May – The Halls, Wolverhampton, UK

18th May – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, UK

19th May – O2 Academy, Manchester, UK

21st May – Arena, Swansea, UK

23rd May – Rock City, Nottingham, UK

24th May – O2 Forum Kentish Town, London, UK

26th May – L’Olympia, Paris, FRANCE

28th May – 013, Tilburg, HOLLAND

29th May – De Oosterport, Groningen, HOLLAND

1st June – Barba Negra, Budapest, HUNGARY

3rd June – Arenale Romane, Bucharest, ROMANIA

6th June – Mystic Festival, Gdansk, POLAND *

5-8th June – Sweden Rock Festival, Solvesborg, SWEDEN *

9th June – Rockefeller, Oslo, NORWAY

11th June – Grona Lund, Stockholm, SWEDEN

13th June – House Of Culture, Helsinki, FINLAND

14th June – Noblessner Foundry, Tallinn, ESTONIA

16th June – Huxleys Neue Welt, Berlin, GERMANY

17th June – Grosse Freiheit 36, Hamburg, GERMANY

19 – 22nd June – Copenhell, Copenhagen, DENMARK *

21st June – Graspop Metal Meeting, Dessel, BELGIUM *

22nd June – Summerside Festival, Grenchen, SWITZERLAND *

24th June – Zeltfestival Rhein-Neckar, Mannheim, GERMANY *

25th June – Circus Krone, Munich, GERMANY

26th – 29th June – Resurrection Festival, Galicia, SPAIN *

27-30th June – Hellfest, Clisson, FRANCE *

30th June – Rockhal, Esch-Sur-Alzette, LUXEMBOURG

3-6th July – Rockharz Open Air, Ballenstedt, GERMANY *

5th July – Ippodrome Delle Capannelle, Rock In Roma, Rome, ITALY *

6th July – Bassano Del Grappa, Metal Park, Vincenza, ITALY *

9th July – E-Werk, Koln, GERMANY

11th – 14th July – Masters Of Rock Festival, Vizovice, Czech Republic *

13th July – Hala, Zagreb, CROATIA

16th July – Kolodrum Arena, Sofia, BULGARIA

19th July – Kucukciftlik Park, Istanbul, TURKEY

21st July – Release, Athens, GREECE *

* – festival performance