Former FEAR FACTORY frontman Burton C. Bell is among the metal musicians who have shared their Spotify Wrapped For Artists stats this year. The Spotify Wrapped For Artists shows how many Spotify users listened to an artist’s music in 2024, how many streams the artist’s music garnered, how many hours were spent listening to the artist’s songs and how many different countries around the world the artist’s listeners are from.
Bell shared his stats on social media earlier today (Friday, December 6),writing in an accompanying message: “So I checked out this ‘wrapped’ BS from Spotify. It is a bittersweet realization as an independent artist to see that my music is truly spanning the globe, and that fans are truly supportive (that is the sweet part).
“THANK YOU TO ALL THE FANS AROUND THE GLOBE FOR YOUR SUPPORT! I AM GRATEFUL FOR YOU!
“The bitterness that wells within my heart is seeing that Spotify WILL compensate me with $4.29…. that is $0.003 for every stream… a fraction of ONE PENNY… #fuckspotify…
“[Spotify CEO] Daniel Ek is reaping in billions off of the backs of all the artists that have built this company, and will not compensate the artist for the invaluable work that supports his business and life.
“Spotify is an ‘evil’, regarded as an ‘important gauge’ for artists in the music industry. How can artists survive in this burgeoning economy with compensation like this?
“What’s even worse is that the only way to really break ground on Spotify is to pay for services to break into a larger audience. ‘Pay to Play’ is still rampant, and it has infiltrated the internet.”
Back in 2015, Bell said that streaming music services like Spotify and Pandora were “getting away with murder” by not paying songwriters a fair royalty rate because of the consent decrees that govern how the vast majority of American songwriters are compensated for their work. Asked by Rodney Holder of Australia’s Music Business Facts for his opinion on the way streaming services like Spotify and Pandora are changing the landscape of the music industry, Bell said at the time: “I’m part of ASCAP, which is a royalty collection company, like BMI. ASCAP collects my royalty [for songs] that are played live [and on] radio [and used] in movies, commercials… whatever.
“Streaming is a very debated issue right now, because companies like Pandora and Spotify are getting away with murder, basically, because they are going with a contract… they are going with a trademark agreement written in the 1940s to pay the artists the least amount of royalty possible, because in the 1940s, there was no such things as the Internet, and they never expected it. So, because of that, they’re using this copyright/trademark law that was written to get away with paying the artist literally nothing. For instance, an artist like Adele — multi-platinum artist. One of her songs, ‘Someone Like You’ or whatever, had over 11 million listens on Pandora. The person who wrote that song, because of the royalty rate, only got paid 11 thousands dollars. For over 11 million million hits [or] listens on Pandora! That’s fucking ridiculous! And that’s what they’re getting away with, and Pandora is fighting to keep it that way.”
He continued: “ASCAP invited me to a conference. I live on the East Coast, in Pennsylvania, and it just so happens that the area that I live in, my state representative, named Tom Marino, he is on the board to rewrite these trademark laws, to change them. And so ASCAP had a bunch of local artists — I happen to be one of them — who are signed up to ASCAP, who, basically… it’s important for them to get a proper royalty rate to survive. So we met with this representative and we all sat and discussed, like… ‘This is our living. This is what we do.'”
Bell went on to say: “Pirating is bad enough. People think it’s okay to steal downloads and music for free — they think it’s okay — but would they enjoy it if I walked into their house after they created a meal for their family, I’d just pick it up and take it? It’s, like, ‘Oh, it’s free.’ It’s the same thing. You just made this for your family to survive.
“I do records, one, because it’s my passion, and two, so me and my family can survive, and you’re just gonna take it? For free, without paying for it? That’s the analogy we give.
“We are actively fighting this to make sure that all recording are properly… We’re not asking for the world, we’re not asking for a million, we are asking for a decent royalty rate. Because with a decent royalty rate, it makes sense to continue writing, it makes sense to continue being in a band.”
Bell added: “Taylor Swift… She’s a fine example. I’m not much of a fan of her music, but I respect the woman immensely, because she is one of the fiercest fighters for artists about this… over this situation. So I highly respect Taylor Swift, ’cause she fiercely fights for us, and it’s amazing.”
According to Bell, the solution to the complex issue of illegal music downloading is simple. “I just think that people need to be educated,” he said. “Especially the younger generation that feel that they’re entitled to everything for free — free Internet. Which is not the case. People work hard to make this. And there needs to be stipulations and things put into place so people start paying for things again. ‘Cause it needs to happen.”
He continued: “Napster, as genius of a technological revolution it was, it fucked a lot of people — it really did. And it created a mentality of, ‘Oh, shit! It’s free. Everything’s free. Wooo!’ It really created a negative impact. And it’s really sad. But at least there is one aspect of the metal community… The metal community is one of the communities of music that do continue to buy albums — CDs and vinyl — which is pretty strange. The metal community is very passionate about the music. And every day on stage, I’m announcing that we have a new record coming out and I’m also saying, ‘If you love the music, you need to support your favorite artists. Because if you do not support your favorite artists, there’s no way that your favorite artists will be able to come out here and play for you.’ And I put it that way. ‘Cause if you put it in that context, it’s, like, ‘Well, if I don’t support them, they won’t be here for me? What?’ Yeah. It’s true.”
Burton released two solo singles earlier this year: “Anti-Droid” and “Technical Exorcism”.
Bell played the first concert with his solo band on June 13 at 1720 in Los Angeles, California.
Backing Bell at the 1720 gig were guitarist Henrik Linde (THE VITALS, DREN),drummer Ryan “Junior” Kittlitz (ALL HAIL THE YETI, THE ACID HELPS),bassist Tony Baumeister (ÆGES) and multi-instrumentalist Stewart Cararas.
When the 1720 concert was first announced, Burton called the gig a “historic event” and vowed to perform “new songs and classics spanning my career.”
Bell‘s discography includes multiple live and recorded collaborations with BLACK SABBATH icon Geezer Butler and JOURNEY‘s Deen Castronovo (as G/Z/R); industrial maverick Al Jourgensen and MINISTRY; and guest vocal appearances with PITCHSHIFTER, CONFLICT, SOIL, STATIC-X, SOULFLY and DELAIN, among others. He’s the vocalist of ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS and CITY OF FIRE and, of course, the co-creator of FEAR FACTORY and the only musician to appear on every FEAR FACTORY release from 1992 through 2024.
FEAR FACTORY created a sound that revolutionized extreme metal, defined in no small part by Bell‘s innovative scream/sing dichotomy and the influences he brought from post-punk and industrial. Songs like “Replica”, “Linchpin”, “Edgecrusher”, “Fear Campaign”, “Archetype”, “Cyber Waste” and “Zero Signal” are modern metal anthems. “Demanufacture” (1995) and the RIAA gold-certified “Obsolete” (1998) are genre-redefining works heralded by fans and critics as essential albums. Orwell, Bradbury, “Blade Runner”, and sophisticated sci-fi and fantasy works fed Bell‘s lyrics and concepts.
The band toured the world with METALLICA, SLIPKNOT, KORN, MEGADETH and OZZY OSBOURNE, taking bands like SYSTEM OF A DOWN and STATIC-X out as support acts in their early stages. After years of behind-the-scenes band member turmoil and legal issues, Bell left FEAR FACTORY in the fall of 2020.
Like the faithful cover of RAMMSTEIN‘s “Du Hast” he released in 2023, or the cover of “Enter Sandman” recorded with DANZIG‘s John Christ and METALLICA‘s Robert Trujillo more than a decade before, Bell‘s solo work embodies the best of hard rock, metal, and industrial’s past, present and future.
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Last year, Bell unveiled “Paradise Found”, his debut exhibition of photographic works, at the Vincent Castiglia Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The photographs Bell presented were representational of his industrial and science-fiction aesthetic.
“Paradise Found” consisted of 20 original full-color photographs of abandoned industrial buildings taken in darkness and fog from 2002 to 2003. Bell‘s images are printed on aluminum using the dye sublimation process — an approach Bell calls “celluloid impressionism.”
Bell‘s ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS project released its second full-length album, “Apocrypha”, in October 2020 via Dissonance Productions.