Spotify’s Newest Pitch to Labels and Musicians: Now You Pay Us

Being a phenomenon of the attention economy, streaming platforms rely both on vast quantities of content and a competitive, almost gambling-like environment to attract artists who hope to go viral in the playlist ecosystem, particularly on Spotify. This leaves an opening for various commercial parties to double down on the incentives that are float... See more

Square acquired Tidal music to tackle this problem with musicians, who currently get most of their revenue from merchandise and tours, not ad revenue.

He tells The Verge that Spotify will incorporate a hybrid business model with three distinct parts. One will involve the typical user subscription revenue, another is advertising dollars through its podcast ad marketplace and music streaming ads, and the third is a la carte options, like helping musicians and podcasters sell merch, tour tickets, or... See more

Spotify’s main form of compensation is the promise of exposure. Put your music on Spotify and it’s instantly available to 138 million subscribers, a veritable nation-state of potential listeners. But with that promise comes the relinquishing of even more control. Reaching any of those listeners depends primarily on Spotify’s recommendation systems;... See more

In reality, Spotify was subject to the outsized influence of the major-label oligopoly of Sony, Universal, and Warner, which together owned a 17 percent stake in the company when it launched. The companies, which controlled roughly 70 percent of the market for recorded music, held considerable negotiating power from the start. For these major label... See more