Statik Selektah thinks that no good will come from Spotify’s purchase of WhoSampled.
The producer spoke to TMZ about his concerns and revealed what he thinks will happen to artists and producers now — particularly non-major label folks who make sample-based music.
“If you’re against sampling, you’re against hip-hop,” he began. “The whole culture was built off of sampling.”
“What’s going to happen with this whole WhoSampled/Spotify collaboration is that it’s going to be really bad for independent artists,” Selektah continued. “This is going to make it really unfair to independent artists.”
The producer continued, providing a bleak look at the future for musicians.
“People are going to get flagged [for samples] in a way that’s going to mess up a lot of creativity and independent art.”
On Nov. 19, WhoSampled announced that it was acquired by Spotify. The platform that’s centered around finding samples, remixes, and cover songs revealed that it will continue to be a standalone website.
"Through our recent discussions with Spotify, it became clear that we share a strong belief in the power of musical context—and a vision for helping listeners go deeper into the songs they love," reads a statement via WhoSampled.
"Spotify has shown a genuine commitment to our mission, and we couldn’t have found a better home for WhoSampled," the statement said.
Through the partnership, WhoSampled introduced improvements to its platform, such as reduced wait time for submissions and free in-app subscriptions.
At the same time, Spotify announced that it would be expanding its song credits and rolling out a new feature about the stories behind songs called SongDNA.