John Washington III Tells Spotify His Answer on Remixes of American King Records Masters Is a Big No

John Washington III has a message for the world's biggest streaming platform, and it is not a negotiation. In a statement published Thursday, the owner of American King Records rejected the idea of streaming platforms arranging deals that let other people remix his artists' music, writing that his answer is "a big no" — "absolutely not," he added.

"Spotify is a streaming platform. Spotify is not my record company," John Washington III wrote. He argued that he did not build his label, invest his money and develop his artists "just to have a streaming platform negotiate how other people can use our master recordings." If another artist wants to remix, sample or commercially use one of the label's masters, he wrote, there is a proper way to do business: "You come to the record company."

The terms he named are the label's, set at the label's table: contact American King Records, negotiate a licensing agreement, and discuss the upfront payment, royalties, ownership and terms of use. He said he is not interested in handing over control of the catalog "in exchange for some undisclosed streaming royalty that might amount to fractions of a penny," and he put the refusal in three lines: no unauthorized remixes of the masters, no third-party licensing without the label's approval, and no giving away control of the catalog for pennies.

John Washington III framed the position as one for independent labels generally, not only his own: artists and independent record labels, he wrote, need to understand that "your music is an asset. Your master recordings are property. Your rights have value." Technology making a remix easier, he argued, is no reason to surrender control of a recording. "Our music. Our masters. Our rights. Our decision," he wrote. "And my decision is a big, fat no."