I might expand this into an actual article at some point, but for the moment, here's a reply to this Louderthanwar post about Spot...
At the end of the day, Spotify lost a fuckton of money; it has little to do with labels (especially in the EU, where they already licenced their catalogues). Spotify is a business; it lost money, so its business model had to change.
Also, let's just point out as regards your allegory that those children were spoilt; they were just too naive to know it.
The problem is, the 'true' music market is composed of music fans, and here's the rub; there just aren't as many as everyone thought there were. For the majority, music is simply functional or transient entertainment- these are the people that use free spotify and they were never going to pay for anything.
Ultimately, records cost money to make. Businesses like Spotify have to break even. Though I think they probably acted prematurely, they made the right call; as a rather clever man once said, "When circumstances change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"
Also, let's just point out as regards your allegory that those children were spoilt; they were just too naive to know it.
The problem is, the 'true' music market is composed of music fans, and here's the rub; there just aren't as many as everyone thought there were. For the majority, music is simply functional or transient entertainment- these are the people that use free spotify and they were never going to pay for anything.
Ultimately, records cost money to make. Businesses like Spotify have to break even. Though I think they probably acted prematurely, they made the right call; as a rather clever man once said, "When circumstances change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"
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