So let them flow freely – from everyone, fans included – instead of only from companies that have cut deals with the copyright holders. 'One way we could start is to collectively acknowledge that nobody can really claim digital streams as exclusive property. Not Frere-Jones' words, but a useful collection of the tweeted criticisms of Spotify and the streaming business model by Atoms for Peace's Nigel Godrich. The model massively favors the larger companies with big catalogues.' Catalogue and new music cannot be lumped in together.

The massive amount of catalogue being streamed guarantees that they get the massive slice of the pie (that $500 million), and the smaller producers and labels get pittance for their comparatively few streams. The big labels did secret deals with Spotify and the like in return for favorable royalty rates. Big labels have massive back catalogues, so their forty-year-old record by a dead artist earns them the same slice of the pie as a brand new-track by a new artist. Spotify say they have generated $500 million for 'license holders.' The way that Spotify works is that the money is divided up by percentage of total streams. Spotify and the like either have to address that fact and change the model for new releases or else all new music producers should be bold and vote with their feet. 'Streaming suits catalogue but cannot work as a way of supporting new artists. If you care about music, should you ditch Spotify? Now feels like a good time to publish an updated version here, with a selection of 10 pieces for artists and fans alike to read and think about. Yet it's also a debate dominated by gut feelings and data of varying quality, and a tendency to slip into polarised opinions along the lines of 'Spotify is just the latest embodiment of THE MAN!' or 'Thom Yorke's a rich HYPOCRITE!'Įarlier this year, I published a roundup of views and data on the streaming music / artists debate for industry site Music Ally.

It's an emotional debate, and an important one at a critical time for artists and the industry, as they look for the best way forward after more than a decade of declining sales for recorded music, post-Napster.

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