I think that if the music loses any of it's value to the consumer by being on Spotify, it is that a 'good' artist's music is just as available as a 'bad' artist's music, and all at a small flat fee. This is most likely debatable though as it's hard to measure things like this.
Don't get me wrong, I also think that music is a lower $$$ commodity than most people think but that is easily side stepped by bands having a wide variety of cheap products to offer (merch, live shows, dvds of live shows etc.). I think a large part of this is due to the economy of today but I don't have much basis for that.
I have mad respect for Sean Parker, but when he said "I don't think we're ever going to get it completely right, the world is changing so quickly that it's very hard to get anything right for long.", I think he was wrong. Him and Spotify focus too much on changing the whole music industry, and they focus too much on the music listener instead of the actual artist.
Spotify removes a lot of the personal ownership of music (not buying albums and owning them even if it is digitally), and that is an important bonding experience between an artist and their fans.
More importantly Spotify offers terrible royalty, Lady Gaga made $167 off 1m plays of Poker Face. Word on the street (aka indie label gossiping) is that Lady Gaga pulls in more money because she is on a major label. I don't think Spotify can afford to pay more royalty because of the large volume of artists they deal with, and that sets them into a huge bind.
Spotify has preached about how they care about the indie artist/label, but they are really just enforcing the major label and this is pushing against the huge movement with removing the middle man and getting your music out directly to the fans so you get 90% of the album sale instead of 5%.
Companies like Topspin Media, Bandcamp, and more recently TuneCore may become a much bigger player with their recent steps in becoming more appealing for the artist.
These other services are all convenient for the consumer and offer more for the artist then Spotify will ever offer. The reason you focus on the artist more than you focus on the consumer is because the consumer is willing to bend to the will of the artists as long as what they provide has a good price tag and is easy to obtain.
Don't get me wrong, I also think that music is a lower $$$ commodity than most people think but that is easily side stepped by bands having a wide variety of cheap products to offer (merch, live shows, dvds of live shows etc.). I think a large part of this is due to the economy of today but I don't have much basis for that.
I have mad respect for Sean Parker, but when he said "I don't think we're ever going to get it completely right, the world is changing so quickly that it's very hard to get anything right for long.", I think he was wrong. Him and Spotify focus too much on changing the whole music industry, and they focus too much on the music listener instead of the actual artist.
Spotify removes a lot of the personal ownership of music (not buying albums and owning them even if it is digitally), and that is an important bonding experience between an artist and their fans.
More importantly Spotify offers terrible royalty, Lady Gaga made $167 off 1m plays of Poker Face. Word on the street (aka indie label gossiping) is that Lady Gaga pulls in more money because she is on a major label. I don't think Spotify can afford to pay more royalty because of the large volume of artists they deal with, and that sets them into a huge bind.
Spotify has preached about how they care about the indie artist/label, but they are really just enforcing the major label and this is pushing against the huge movement with removing the middle man and getting your music out directly to the fans so you get 90% of the album sale instead of 5%.
Companies like Topspin Media, Bandcamp, and more recently TuneCore may become a much bigger player with their recent steps in becoming more appealing for the artist.
These other services are all convenient for the consumer and offer more for the artist then Spotify will ever offer. The reason you focus on the artist more than you focus on the consumer is because the consumer is willing to bend to the will of the artists as long as what they provide has a good price tag and is easy to obtain.