The San Francisco Public Library Wants to Pay Local Musicians

*Record scratch*… a lot of working musicians could actually make more money from the San Francisco Public Library than from Spotify.

The library’s Bay Beats streaming service, which launched in 2023, is currently accepting music submissions through May 31, and if selected by a panel of staff and musical experts, artists get paid a $250 honorarium to have their album featured on the platform. That’s roughly the equivalent of what one would make from 65,789 Spotify streams.

While Spotify boasts of injecting billions of dollars into the music industry, critics argue that only elite, top-tier artists make enough money to eat off of streams. The platform isn’t necessarily about music discovery anymore, either. As journalist Liz Pelly explains in her recent book, Mood Machine, Spotify’s goal is to keep users constantly on the app by providing background music for cooking, studying and other daily routines.

For those who care about their local scene, and want more than background noise, Bay Beats could be an antidote. Since its debut, the library’s streaming service has amassed an eclectic collection of over 300 albums by local artists that anyone can stream or download for free. The music on Bay Beats suits a wide variety of tastes: There’s the punchy synth-punk of Cold Beat; raps about mindfulness from Jahi; salsa by Bululú; and Arabic-infused psych rock by Camellia Boutros.

Bay Beats is also curating live shows at libraries, like an upcoming daytime concert with R&B and jazz singer Rita Lackey on March 22 at the Ingleside branch.

Artists who want to be featured on the Bay Beats streaming service submit two to three tracks for jurors to review. To qualify, artists must live in one of the Bay Area’s nine counties, and have an album’s worth of music (which the library defines as at least five tracks or 15 minutes).

This year’s judges panel includes some heavy hitters. There’s Peter Kadin, head of marketing at EMPIRE, a record label that started in San Francisco and has since gone global; Yunfei Nan, a multi-instrumentalist and leader of the Mandarin-language indie pop band Howan; Jesse ‘Chuy’ Varela, the music and program director at KCSM JAZZ 91.1; and several others.

More information on how to apply can be found here.