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

But I also think that the maturation of podcasting, on the whole, is a good thing. The decentralized nature and lack of scale over the last 15 years limited the format’s growth, and increased monetization will trigger a cambrian explosion of new talent.