John Washington III Tells Spotify His Answer Is 'A Big No': American King Records Masters Are Not a Streaming Platform's to License

John Washington III said he has a serious problem with streaming platforms attempting to negotiate deals that would allow other people to remix artists' music. "Spotify is a streaming platform," he wrote. "Spotify is not my record company."

John Washington III said he did not build his record label, invest his money, develop his artists and create his music catalog so that a streaming platform could negotiate how other people use the label's master recordings. If another artist wants to remix, sample or commercially use one of those recordings, he said, there is a proper way to conduct business: "You come to the record company."

That means contacting American King Records and negotiating a licensing agreement, John Washington III said, with the upfront payment, royalties, ownership and terms of use discussed with the label itself. He said he is not interested in handing over control of the catalog in exchange for an undisclosed streaming royalty that might amount to fractions of a penny, and he added, "We are not giving away our music."

John Washington III argued that a streaming platform's size does not entitle it to replace the record label or dictate the value of a label's intellectual property. Artists and independent record labels, he said, need to understand that their music is an asset, their master recordings are property, and their rights have value, and that easier remix technology is no reason to surrender control over how recordings are used.

John Washington III closed by stating the label's position in full: no unauthorized remixes of its masters, no third-party licensing of its masters without the label's approval, and no giving away control of its catalog for pennies. "Our music. Our masters. Our rights. Our decision," he wrote. "And my decision is a big, fat no."