Jimmy Buffett Wants Mo' Money From Spotify

Apparently, all that Margaritaville money just isn't enough for Jimmy Buffett.

Vanity Fair held their inaugural New Establishment Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, where Buffett made a short appearance. But he wasn't serenading the crowd with songs about cheeseburgers or margaritas, Buffet was there to ask Spotify, a music streaming service, for a raise.

"Do you see anything in your future where we might get a raise directly from you?" he asked Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, "as opposed to going through the bullshit you have to go through to deal with a label these days."

A few chuckles rose from the crowd, however Buffett didn't think this was any laughing matter. The Verge reports that Buffet continued his remarks towards Ek with a short speech about the modern day struggles of young artists.

"How the stream of revenue gets to the artist, particularly young struggling artists, it's really hard for that to actually happen in real life if you're a young artist. So I'd hope that all the music service groups would kind of look at that. It's one thing when it goes to the record label. Most of it doesn't get to the artist, which would be nice."

Ek agreed, but also defended his company by noting how Spotify has brought "transparency" into the industry, allowing musicians to view how many streams they had, and how much Spotify pays out. He also mentioned that this transparency changed the way that labels conducted business.

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In May, spotify announced that they have acrued 10 million paying subscribers, and 40 million active users which is up from 6 million subscribers in March of 2013. A subscription to Spotify currently costs $9.99 per month, but they offer a discounted rate for students at $4.99 per month.

Image: Greg Allen/Invision/Associated Press