I'm confused though.
Mariah made 66k in a week from spotify streams and I don't think she got 72.5m streams in that time frame. Perhaps the 0.00091 is performance royalties only and doesn't count writing/producing????

You have it backwards. With youtube the artist / label has to pay for the cost of the video as well as the music production.

If there is going to a difference, youtube should pay more per stream than services that just stream music.

MESS when this free trial ends im making another account i dont got money for this ****

AM's new UI is ugly as ****. No one's going to go there if Spotify Free "sinks," there are other streaming apps with a Free profile.

Apple is just so greedy.

ahhhHH the way Spotify constantly has its heel pressed on their greedy tax-evading neck

All this streaming services ruin the music. I really really hope that iTunes won't close because of Apple Music or they can go **** off.

Apple Music is overrated and it's basically a cheap TIDAL

Yes eliminate Spotify free tier

Spotify pays not taxes at all....well that's because they don't make any money at all. I'm not sure why people think that the people who make the music we listen to shouldn't make any money. This move has nothing to do with Spotify.

It has to do with simplifying the business model for music. Basically, it gives the rights holders the same incentives to put their music up for streaming that downloads does. It makes streaming = to downloads. I don't see a problem with this. Spotify should upgrade their free model. I agree with those who say it shouldn't necessarily apply to youtube but it should apply to everyone else.

Spotify Free has too much ads already

Spotify, Google, Pandora, Amazon and the RIAA are also due to submit their proposals. So it's not just Apple guys. Sorry burst your bubble.

Then get your poor a** some Premium!

All the Apple fans are so pressed with Spotify

Spotify's free tier is the reason streaming took off. Before AM ever existed, Spotify was working off a method of freemium where people who normally downloaded illegally became hooked on free streaming as it was easier, provided a more reliable source and allowed for better music discovery. The paid subscription was optional and as users grew in love with free streaming, they got sick of the ads and desired the benefits of the paid service. The monthly subscription fee seemed worth paying when iTunes' 'pay per download' for a messy lesser quality .mp3 wasn't' so Apple began to lose. They have now decided to jump on this streaming trend on the back of Spotify's groundwork and think that thrashing Spotify's free tier will help streaming when that free tier is what is helping streaming grow in the first place.

Also, Spotify could easily redesign their ads system and make the free tier profitable. Atm they only seem to advertise their own product whereas if they increased the ad space on the app and included external paying advertisers, the free tier could become sustainable. They get more streams than any other service from a wide demographic. Also things like a tip jar and direct links to purchase albums/merchandise could tip the balance for Spotify and make it more favorable than iTunes/Amazon for industry officials.

I'm very happy paying for Spotify. What you get in comparison to the free tier makes it worth it. But if they scrap the free tier, illegal downloads will just skyrocket again. The best thing to do would be make them charge more for ads.

I just find it funny that every teenager and adults to who only knows how old are all happy to pay for Netflix but find the notion of paying for music to be obscene. How many instances are there where you can watch Netflix? Not as many as there are where you can listen to music. It's purely an audio experience. Therefore you would listen to more music than you would watch movies and shows

The money is better spent on music if you spend more time listening to it over movies. Plus it's easier than having to find illegal downloads. But maybe my eyes are just too open. I just know that music is going to keep getting more hit focused as money shrinks. That hurts the consumer. Well consumers who like to balance their hits with new sounds and experimental artists

Free tier should be only used to give users a taste of how convenient streaming could be. They shouldn't be allowed to stay free forever or people will start to feel entitled to get music for free and abuse the system.