For a company that has revolutionized the music industry and changed the way we listen to music, one would expect Spotify to be making a lot of money.
How has spotify “revolutionized” the music industry? Are thy doing anything new? Streaming isn’t new, yearly reviews aren’t new, freemium isn’t new, discovery isn’t new… Is the revolution that it’s now a standard target for artists?
When Spotify was made available in the US, I don’t think there were any other services where you could, for free, choose a song and play it. Other services would just let you listen to similar music for free, but Spotify let you listen to the actual song you wanted.
Which didn’t pay a cent to artists. It was basically pirating working in a greyzone.
Spotify literally changed the way people listen to music by being popular enough that the general way of listening changed from a purchase, listen forever model. To a listen to anything you want and never not have anything new, way of listening (but you don’t own anything).
A song is no longer worth a purchase of a cd, or dollar at itunes. It’s worth the 3 minutes of listening that it gives you when Spotify recommends it to you.
Obviously I’m biased. And also, yes, there were streaming services before Spotify, but nobody that mattered and with the influence of Spotify.
