Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:
Spotify payouts: Billboard reports from unnamed sources that Spotify paid out $300 million in royalties during the first quarter of 2015. Since its launch in 2008, the streaming service has paid $3 billion in royalties. Billboard notes the accelerating pace of Spotify’s royalty-payout growth.
Steve Albini talks copyright: Steve Albini has given several speeches and talks about the state of the music industry. His latest talk was at the Primavera Pro conference in Barcelona, and it covered his concerns about copyright laws. “That old copyright model of the person who wrote something down owns it and anyone else who wants to use it or see it has to pay him, I think that model has expired,” he said.
Deezer not worried about Apple rivalry: Deezer CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht spoke at the Midem conference about Apple’s expected entry into the music streaming market. “There’s going to be serious competition,” he said. “But competition is good because it makes us run faster. And when a big company like Apple moves into a business like streaming, it proves that it’s the business model of the future.”