Spotify music service not impressing its artists

In the ongoing quest to find the next commercially viable way for music artists and their labels to make money from their songs, a Swedish firm called Spotify has emerged with a novel solution. For a small monthly fee, users can stream any music from participating artists as often as they like from the website.

But the prolific Swedish musician Magnus Uggla sees the new streaming service as an empty black hole for artists, not the next evolution. Uggla claims his “songs are being given away,” by Spotify. He went on to say in his blog that “I’d rather be raped by The Pirate Bay than shafted by Hasse Breitholtz and Sony Music [who persuaded Uggla to join].”

The Local reports that Uggla actually likes the concept of Spotify, going so far as to call it “an incredible internet service.” It’s the business model that he despises, in which users can access everything anytime for just 99 kroner a month.

Ugger claims that during the entire first half of this year he earned little more from Spotify than a mediocre street musician would on an average day. But Spotify is defending itself by saying some revenue is better than no money at all, which is the current dilemma with illegal downloads. After all, the concept of members-only streaming is still in its infancy and artists need to be patient if they want to see this form of music purchase replace illegal filesharing.

The Local has more on this article.