Thea Gilmore on reduced to being invisible

Cheshire-based singer and songwriter Thea Gilmore has gained global acclaim since releasing her debut album as a teenager nearly 30 years ago. Her music is renowned for its extraordinary beauty, rare honesty, and insightful lyrics.

Balancing a successful music career and championing for value of the work of creators in the entertainment business, she is a very busy woman – but not too busy to fight back against the music industry after being told that she wasn't 'worth very much'.

Gilmore posted a lengthy statement on Facebook saying: "Apparently, I’m not worth very much.

That’s what I was told, recently, by someone in the music industry.

Not as an artist.

As a proposition.

Because my social media numbers aren’t high enough.

Not compared to artists in their 20s.

We’ve built a system where your value is measured by how easily you can be seen, not how deeply you’re felt.

Followers.

Streams.

Reach.

That’s the language now.

The bit that gets whispered is that those numbers don’t always mean anything real.

I know artists with huge followings who can’t fill a room.

Who are still working second jobs, still trying to make it add up.

Because attention is cheap, connection isn’t.

The truth about streaming?

It costs around £25,000 to make a record properly.

Spotify pays about £0.004 per stream.

That’s over 6 million streams just to break even.

The truth about social media?

You’re not building an audience, you’re borrowing one.

And the terms can change overnight.

Even the people who chose to follow you won’t see what you make unless they’re trained to engage with it.

So now the job isn’t to make something meaningful, it’s to keep interrupting people long enough that the algorithm doesn’t forget you exist.

But there’s another version of this, a quieter one.

My audience doesn’t just scroll.

They also show up.

They become Patrons.

They buy records.

They come to shows.

They stay.

And that’s the part no one can really measure, but it’s the part that keeps the lights on.

There isn’t one way to have a career in music anymore.

There are hundreds.

Most of them won’t trend or chart or look impressive on paper.

But they’re very real.

I feel incredibly lucky. I’ve navigated every iteration of the music industry since I was 16.

I’m still here, still making work.

Still building something that lasts longer than a moment on a screen.

So if I’m “not worth very much” in that system… You know, I’m alright with that.

I know exactly what I’ve built.

It is human, slow and real.

Do you want to be counted? Or connected?"

Fans were quick to rush to her defence with over nine hundred comments of support so far, including: "It's your music that matters to me. Your spirit moved mine and for that I am very grateful to you," and "Such a well written and heartfelt posting. I refuse to use Spotify exactly for that reason. Keep on making music that matters."

In an industry that counts numbers over talent, we need to support more artists like Gilmore over brand deals that are filling social media posts and festival headline slots.

Image: Facebook