Taylor did the right thing to ditch Spotify

[Serendipity 7,821]

Is Spotify good for the recording industry? Or is the world's leading streaming service undercutting it? The company argues that by offering both free and paid subscription listening, it helps overall music sales by fighting piracy while converting some fans to paying customers. Critics—most prominently one Taylor Swift—say it hurts artists by convincing fans they shouldn't have to pay for tunes while paying out negligible royalties to artists.

It turns out that both might be wrong. In a new working paper, University of Minnesota economist Joel Waldfogel and Luis Aguiar of the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies in Seville, Spain, estimate how Spotify has affected both music sales and piracy during its fast expansion across the globe. Their method: comparing countries where the service grew rapidly between 2013 and 2015, and those where it didn't. The upshot? According to the authors' calculations, Spotify does seem to have put a damper on piracy, but it's also displaced some digital sales (neither is exactly a shocker). Add it all up, then factor in the payments Spotify itself is sending to labels, and the effect appears to be roughly "revenue neutral" for rights holders. They don't make any more money. They don't make any less.

As the paper notes, "It is not clear that revenue neutrality is an indication of success," given that some might have been hoping that streaming would increase overall music sales. But at least it suggests the platform isn't sapping the life out the business.

If these findings hold up (again, it's just one working paper), it should put the ongoing debate about Spotify's treatment of artists into some new perspective. If the platform's business model hasn't shrunk the total pie of cash being divvied up by rights holders, but some artists really are seeing their paychecks shrink, it suggests the problem (insofar as one exists) has to do with the way record labels are distributing the cash. In which case, by singling out on-demand streaming as the source of artists' woes, people like Swift are fingering the wrong villain.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/10/26/economics_study_says_taylor_swift_is_wrong_about_spotify.html 

 

 

Basically the moment Spotify came out, sales took a MASSIVE drop from 2013 onwards when it took off

[gagzus 14,467]

Actually what kills the music industry and the experience of music is the way popstars, labels and publications are nowadays.

Popstars have little to no talent other than good looks and Melodyne handy, Labels try to control the visions of creatives in order for THEM and the other fatcats to make millions of dollars/pounds/euros/yen etc and publications act like messy fans and try to make the whole industry a competition, making the general public think talented artists are terrible just because their albums sell less and are more in-depth like the old music of the 70s & 80s. I mean, look at the past two years, the music in the top 40 has been utter rubbish mask with pretence, and even major publications like Rolling Stone post articles and print columns that have as much taste as those gossip magazines saying celebrities are on d--gs, out of control or dying or overweight etc

And i will say this for the millionth time, Taylor Swift is a greedy moron, if she wasn't she wouldn't complain about making for example; 3 million dollars instead of 4 on Spotify. It's not about the art of music it's about the greed and the need for an expensive lifestyle.

[Serendipity 7,821]

Actually what kills the music industry and the experience of music is the way popstars, labels and publications are nowadays.

Popstars have little to no talent other than good looks and Melodyne handy, Labels try to control the visions of creatives in order for THEM and the other fatcats to make millions of dollars/pounds/euros/yen etc and publications act like messy fans and try to make the whole industry a competition, making the general public think talented artists are terrible just because their albums sell less and are more in-depth like the old music of the 70s & 80s.

And i will say this for the millionth time, Taylor Swift is a greedy moron, if she wasn't she wouldn't complain about making for example; 3 million dollars instead of 4 on Spotify. It's not about the art of music it's about the greed and the need for an expensive lifestyle.

Keep telling this when she'll outsell others (except Adele) 5:1 ratio 

[gagzus 14,467]

Keep telling this when she'll outsell others (except Adele) 5:1 ratio 

I will because she's still greedy and a garbage artist

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

NO

[Serendipity 7,821]

I will because she's still greedy and a garbage artist

I guess her Grammys don't mean anything to you, do they? 

[gagzus 14,467]

I guess her Grammys don't mean anything to you, do they? 

i will reiterate what i have said in laments terms for you to understand

Talent > Anything media tells u is good like awards, hit singles, album sales because being generic and getting awards that are not given out like candy is not an accomplishment.

[Serendipity 7,821]

i will reiterate what i have said in laments terms for you to understand

Talent > Anything media tells u is good like awards, hit singles, album sales because being generic and getting awards that are not given out like candy is not an accomplishment.

I guess the Grammys Gaga won are pointless too iyo 

[gagzus 14,467]

I guess the Grammys Gaga won are pointless too iyo 

it is, she doesn't need them to be a good artist she could have zero awards and sell 14k copies and only tour clubs and i'd still love her

[FATCAT 58,944]

I didn't even realize her album wasn't on spotify.

[Serendipity 7,821]

I didn't even realize her album wasn't on spotify.

That's the reason it's selling this much

 

Streaming basically killed the album sales

 

Sales were decreasing gradually, but with the rise of Spotify they plummeted hard

[Harry 26,836]

I guess the Grammys Gaga won are pointless too iyo 

Tbh it's very sad if you think material things like this are the most important and are useful in discussions about talent. Yes Grammys are nice things to have and they're cool achievements but there are plenty of amazing artists who never got one, and plenty of awarded artists/songs/albums that didn't deserve them. Have your own opinion.

[Serendipity 7,821]

Tbh it's very sad if you think material things like this are the most important and are useful in discussions about talent. Yes Grammys are nice things to have and they're cool achievements but there are plenty of amazing artists who never got one, and plenty of awarded artists/songs/albums that didn't deserve them. Have your own opinion.

Sis, I stan Mariah, The Songbird Supreme

I think I know the meaning of quality

[Harry 26,836]

Sis, I stan Mariah, The Songbird Supreme

I think I know the meaning of quality

alright

[StrawberryBlond 14,101]

Music sales are going down because albums simply aren't that good anymore. Album sales plummted with the release of Spotify because now the public had a way of listening to music for free to work out if an album was worth buying. And they discovered that the vast majority of them are mediocre with only a few gems here and there. They all wiped their brow with relief at getting out of buying the whole album and downloaded the specific tracks they liked on itunes. If anything, the rise of streaming might encourage artists to buck up and create better albums so people will want to buy them. I don't know if it's working yet, though. But artists (and labels) need to realise that only trying hard for 50% of an album or only making 2 good singles isn't going to make the public buy like they did in the days before streaming.

I will also say that labels really need to step up with promo too. They only seem to give precedence to their biggest sellers, leaving the rest in the dirt. You can't sell your music if the public don't know it exists. They need to sign better artists, too, and stop just going for the ones who can make a quick buck with some generic tunes written for them (which don't always succeed).

Labels have so much to answer for when it comes to the downfall of the industry. But they never take responsibility for it. It's always someone else's fault. I thought the massive sales from artists like Taylor and Adele recently would convince them that maybe, sometimes, it's a mixture of talent, hype and promo that makes for a winning combination, but they still don't get it. Usually, these big sales make them shut up for a while, but because Taylor was such an anti-piracy crusader, the conversation was brought up even more.