There has been a lot of commotion the last few days about music streaming service Spotify. While the service is awesome for consumers, some labels aren't too happy, namely Century Media who have pulled their entire catalog citing low streaming revenue (Spotify only pays $0.00024 per stream). This has led to our good friend Vince Neilstien calling them out, them responding, and him responding back, leading to quite an interesting debate that lead to some interesting points (in a nutshell):
– The label's viewpoint is simply that streaming on Spotify is not a profitable game for them, and they feel they can make more money by not being on it. They feel music should be paid for, not given out for free.
– The other viewpoint is that this is very short-sighted and eventually all music will be streaming and next to free.
While I am no record label executive, I personally feel Spotify does way more good than harm, especially when it comes to discovering new bands. My go-to Spotify story, was when I was at a party in Sweden a few months ago, and got into this huge discussion about music with some people I met, and every time we were just like "Oh man you gotta hear this…", we just went over to the computer and played the track. It was miraculous and the best way to discover new music. And, who knows? Maybe kids would be doing this all over the country and bands will get new followings just by Spotify referrals. It may not lead to album sales, but surely it would lead to live event and merchandise sales.
In the end, it's Century Media's music and they can decide whatever they want to do with it. Conversely, Earache Records has taken the opposite approach and put their entire catalog on Spotify for free streaming.
I guess only time will tell if Spotify is a viable option.
