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Spotify’s year end campaign is again a flashpoint for reflection and criticism—is this model really working for diverse artists, and if not, why not? What happens if we think about more than just this one company?
YouTube accounts for 47% of active music listening, while Spotify is just 29%. And YouTube pays much less than Spotify does. This in turn impacts what Spotify is willing to charge and what terms they can get away with offering.
(Remember as well that working to understand what drives companies’ decisions and policies and what factors may constrain their actions doesn’t constitute a defense of their actions.)
The sweeping changes many artists want to see happen to Spotify’s payouts and calculations are unlikely without some kind of regulatory action applied to YouTube, addressing both market power and discriminatory policies.
The role of FM radio is often underdiscussed (in part because ownership consolidation has meant few musicians get played on commercial radio in the US). FM radio doesn’t pay musicians a cent, and that means Digital services can always say “we’re still better than radio.”
