Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Spotify: Frenemy of the Music Industry

File sharing and piracy have been a major threat against the music industry since the digital revolution. The internet with programs such as Napster, Kazaa, etc. allowed unlimited access to essentially any and all music for free, albeit illegally. Apple seemed to relieve the issue by offering a service that allowed instant legal access to digital music files in Itunes. However, in 2011 Spotify was launched in the United States with a revolutionary model. One can have free access to an extremely extensive library of music with ads, or pay a subscription price for no ads. It combined the legality of Itunes and the free-ness of torrent sites for a seemingly perfect model for the music industry in the digital age. Unfortunately it seems that the perfection is only a guise, and artists themselves are not receiving appropriate returns from the service as shown in this article. 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/for_many_artists_spotify_and_rdio_just_arent_cutti.php

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