A group of Grammy-nominated songwriters including Jessi Alexander, Amy Allen, Jessie Jo Dillon, and RAYE will not attend or perform at Spotify’s Songwriter Of The Year Grammy party, which is currently scheduled for Jan. 28 ahead of the 2025 Grammy Awards on Feb. 2. According to Billboard, Allen (“Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Adore You” by Harry Styles, and “greedy” by Tate McRae) and Dillon (“10,000 Hours” by Dan + Shay, “Lies Lies Lies” by Morgan Wallen and “Am I Okay?” by Megan Moroney) are citing Spotify’s treatment of songwriters as the reason for their decision not to attend. This means that four out of the five Songwriter Of The Year-nominated artists will not be at the party. The fifth, Edgar Barrera, has not commented on the matter yet.

The songwriters’ decision came after Spotify cut royalty rates on premium streams for songwriters and publishers in April of last year. According to Billboard, the cut would lead to a $150 million decrease in royalties over 12 months. Spotify has argued that it qualifies for a lower mechanical royalty rate for songwriters and publishers because it has added audiobooks to its premium subscription tiers and reclassified the entire product as a “bundle” with multiple services for one price. The royalty originally intended for songwriters and publishers has been split between paying for music and audiobooks.

In a statement to Billboard, Dillon says: “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.”

Meanwhile, RAYE’s rep says the singer/songwriter (“Dancing With A Stranger” by Sam Smith & Normani, “Secrets” by OneRepublic) never committed to attending, so “there’s nothing for her to back out of at present.” They hedged, however, that RAYE has always been “an outspoken advocate on behalf of songwriters’ rights igniting an industry-wide dialogue on the topic.” (From a PR perspective, that’s quite a delicate threading of the needle. Anyway…)

A representative for Alexander (“Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma” by Luke Combs, “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus, “You, Me and Whiskey” by Justin Moore & Priscilla Block) also confirmed to Billboard that she would not attend Spotify’s event but did not provide a hard reason for dropping out. Spotify has not commented on the matter at this time.

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