I prefer to buy an album and then stream it through Spotify or play it on Youtube when I listen on a computer/mobile device. It's like a double whammy.

I should have known the majority on ATRL is too stupid to understand.

Your "favs" represent a TINY PERCENTAGE, not even a DOT on the page of the music industry.

The people that CREATE those hits for your favs (many of whom just sing the song exactly like the demo recording too) WON'T if it's no longer profitable - if streaming completely replaces then their main source of revenue will be cut to virtually nothing

I also find it strange this fact has been quietly ignored by 99% of the media covering this whole story. Ek is basically co-responsible why pirating exists. And then he comes and acts all like the saviour of the industry... The **** outta here....

This might sound crazy ridiculous, but when Spotify is in offline mode like when playing your music in the car or when your out and about, not conencted to Wifi, does that count as one stream to the artist/song? I never really knew for sure. I know it certainly does when it connected to Wifi and not in offline mode.

Jonathon, you need to chill.

Isn't this about Taylor Swift, anyways? She writes her own songs, no? Doesn't apply. Bye!

I agree, pitying artists like Taylor Swift is ****ing dumb She makes millions either way and physical copies of a Taylor Swift album are going to have no issue being sold. People are so ridiculous and extra about this, as is Miss Swift herself

Smaller, less established acts, in the end, benefit from using Spotify, too. It makes their music available to a wider platform, and Spotify has all kind of features that allow people to discover new music and smaller acts. iTunes and other digital retailers focus on catering what will sell already, making it harder for newer acts to break out in such a market.

Everyone talking about how big artists shouldn't complain about spotify revenue but there is more than just them getting paid??? You have many members on the team who are making wages the same as any normal 9 to 5 person. They do get hurt when streaming takes away what they could be making with actual sales. Streaming is not the problem, you people act like Taylor is trying to get rid of Spotify. The problem is how much compensation they give back. When they FIX that, Taylor will go back to Spotify. All that's being asked is to be paid what you feel your art is worth.

I don't give a **** how your name is spelled

Second, why is it a problem if the culture of ghost writing goes away? Is that not a good thing?
Does that not convince artists to actually being doing the artwork themselves? HmMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click the red X, boo.

The music being accessed is not free...? There are ads and membership fees that are very worthwile.

Anyone that uses Spotify without premium knows how bad it is. It's stupid to use unless you pay for it. Paying for it makes it VERY worth it and also supports the artists. If more people use it, which they likely will, because it's the most sleek/worthwhile music platform currently, it will compensate artists more fairly. Is that registering with you, or...?

The thing is that we already live in a "music is free" culture and have for about 15 years now. Outlets like Spotify have actually provided a legitimized alternative to pirating that is finding new ways to compensate artists. While I do agree that they likely need to start rethinking their payout model for artists at this point as it grows, Spotify is not some devil out to screw the industry, and really it is a relatively small piece of the pie when all is said and done at the moment. Also, it's a pretty new model that will only adjust as the industry continues to shift.

It looks like people are now just shifting the "decline in records sales" blame to streaming outlets now, when in reality the current major record label model is and has been what needs to change, period. If you want to champion for anything on behalf of creators, that should be it, not jumping on some anti-Spotify bandwagon, which if anything is attempting to steer people away from piracy. Also, it is an artist's and label's choice if they want to put their music on Spotify or not, which comes from their own understanding of what they can gain monetarily from being a part of such a service. It's not as if Spotify has uploaded all of their music without permission and are having a grand ole time of it. The anger redirected towards Spotify (which is becoming unjustly similar to the ire unleashed upon illegal downloaders and file sharing program in the past) is just grossly misplaced.

Dont Spotify have that $0.99 deal for 3 months.
I think the deal ends on Dec. 31st.

Spotify pays better than radio. I can't remember where I read it but someone did the calculation.

Nobody is coming for radio though. It's supposed to be just a small part of the revenue artists get these days. The rest is from tour, endorsement, etc. Music sales barely cover the cost of producing an album.

Any artist must be DUMB or LYING if they say they expect to make a living from just radio royalty or streaming compensation. It's simply not how it works. Radio and streaming are supposed to be mostly promotional.

And let's not act like Taylor was out there advocating fair pay. EVERYBODY KNOWS SHE REMOVED THE ALBUM FROM SPOTIFY SO THAT SHE COULD HAVE THAT 1.2M NUMBER. Nothing wrong with that either, but I hope she and her label would stop lying about being such concerned artists and tarnishing the good work that Spotify has done to music listeners out there.

Get a scrobbling system so i can ditch annoying Last.fm and it's bugs