Contemplations Contemplatin' Since 2008

Spotify – A brief look at criticisms

I was looking through the Spotify page on Wikipedia today and was surprised to read what I did.

Despite its popularity, the service has recently come under fire for failing to compensate independent artists fairly. Helienne Lindvall of The Guardian reported that "indie labels... as opposed to the majors and Merlin members, receive no advance, receive no minimum per stream and only get a 50% share of ad revenue on a pro-rata basis." [49] Swedish musician Magnus Uggla - who is on major label Sony Music - wanted to pull his music from the site, stating that after six months he'd only earned "what a mediocre busker could earn in a day".[50] Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet recently reported that record label Junior Racing had only earned NOK 19 ($3.00 USD) after their artists had been streamed over 55,100 times.[51]
Luke Lewis of NME points to problems with the Spotify business model, saying he was "convinced the 'free' aspect of Spotify is unsustainable" and that if "Spotify is to have a future, it needs to be a viable business".[52]

It is very disappointing to read the above comments from people, especially artists. Spotify has taken what is a very difficult task of trying to stop people downloading music / pirating it, and create a service that offers people unlimited free listening of music by having them listen to an advert every 20 minutes. Unless of course you pay for the premium version (£9.99), then you don't have to listen to the adverts.

The artists above (or their representatives) have stated that they have not received very much money from Spotify in royalties, and that they have been considering, and in some cases actually getting Spotify to remove their music from the site. This in turn means that anyone who once listened to this music on Spotify now either has to go out and buy the music, or they will simply download it. Admittedly, Spotify are not giving the artists as much in royalties as they should, but unlike money hungry record companies, I can only assume that they are keeping any profit in order to maintain the service they offer their customers, which believe it or not actually has a beneficial effect to the artist, even if they don't receive money straight away. Listening on Spotify can indeed lead a person to go see a gig of the artist in question, or maybe even buy a CD.

If artists decide to take their music off Spotify for whatever reason, all that will ultimately happen is that the Spotify service will end up with less and less music, and as a result they will probably end up going down the drain. Which would be a really big shame, don't you think? As ultimately, the more popular they get, the less likely people are to download music illegally, and the more likely artists are going to be to get their money. It won't happen overnight though, that's for sure. With that in mind, I really feel that artists should try stick behind Spotify, back them up, help promote them at gigs, offer special content through Spotify etc, and build a fan base for Spotify. Then as more and more people join, the artists will ultimately earn more money, and of course end up with more people buying their merchandise, coming to their gigs, etc, etc.

Record label 'Junior Racing', have only earned $3 (USD) in royalties from Spotify having streamed tracks of their bands 55,000+ times, but as small as that is, it's stopping or at least decreased the amount of people who download those tracks illegally, and re-distribute. Thus minimising ultimate damage to an artist, whilst their music still retaining popularity with the general public, surely that's a good thing? And something that record companies and artists should embrace and latch on to! Don't you think!?

Whilst Luke Lewis of NME says that Spotify doesn't have a strong enough business model to maintain the 'free music' approach. Ultimately, that may be true, but only if Spotify are left to go it alone. As I said earlier, I think if artists and record companies rally behind free music services like Spotify. Things can and will get better, and it will save what could be a 'legal music revolution' from going down the drain, all because in the short term, people are more interested in money than the bigger picture. And that bigger picture is giving people a reason to stop downloading music, and move on to a legal music site where the artists best interests are at heart.

I'd like to hear your opinions on the matter, so please do comment.