The latest outburst in the high-profile Spotify debate does more than just criticize streaming, it condemns it. Rosanne Cash, who testified in a congressional music-licensing hearing this summer, stirred up mixed reactions with two recent Facebook posts in which she equated streaming with music piracy, and also continued her impassioned campaign to alter U.S. copyright regulations. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Sonos gets SoundCloud; Taylor Swift waxes optimistic about the music business; the sound of deep space. Continue Reading
In a Hollywood Reporter interview, singer Jared Leto of the band 30 Seconds to Mars offered his thoughts about streaming music. Leto has his doubts about the sustainability of streaming for musicians. But he points a huge measure of accountability at record labels. Continue Reading
Bette Midler is the latest high-profile musician to launch a complaint about revenue from music streaming, a meme that we refer to as the Spotify Debate. Spotify and Pandora bear the lash of musicians’ anger more than most other services — and suffer the resulting confusion, too. Continue Reading
Dave Allen, iconic musician and participant in the “Spotify debate,” announced in the Beats Music blog that he has accepted the position of Director, Artist & Music Industry Advocate. “I am back in the music business after 13 years,” Allen enthuses. Continue Reading
A streaming success story: Ron Pope’s tracks have been played 57-million times, and he has earned about $335,000 in Spotify royalties. In 2013, Spotify paid Ron Pope $200,000. He cites Spotify as his second-highest income source, after iTunes. His live shows are fourth on Pope’s income list. Continue Reading
2013 was the year in which music royalties were lifted from the realm of legal arcana, and placed in public consciousness. Along with that, the related issue of musicians’ livelihood was insistently inserted into the online conversation. A U.S. lawmaker introduced a new royalty regulation bill. Radio and label groups cut new deals. And Pandora shifted focus. Continue Reading
The “Spotify Debate” has been raised to a new level. It features the same debate points, but now presented as dueling websites. Until now, the war of words and philosophies was waged in sniping blog posts and interview quotes among… Continue Reading
Frances Moore, CEO of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, made some waves and splashed some cool water of long-term thinking on the hot debate over artist payouts from streaming music services. Moore spoke at the ARIA Masterclass in Sydney,… Continue Reading
The “Spotify debate” swirls around one core hypothesis: Musicians don’t get enough value from the service. As such, Spotify is a surrogate for music streaming sites, which promote access instead of ownership, and attention instead of purchases. The debate flared… Continue Reading
RAIN’s Weekend Perspective summarizes the week’s important events for a weekend catch-up, and revives your aching synapses for coming week. NEW & BETA Google Glass eases into music: Google’s streaming music service might be coming to the jazzy wearable computer.… Continue Reading
Not to trivialize business issues for musicians, but the “Spotify debate” rages on which increasing repetition. Some of the publicized outbursts against Spotify result from musicians being asked about it by journalists. The latest high-profile musician to take a club… Continue Reading