We talked about Taylor pulling her music off Spotify at lunch today, and after I got back from my lesson, I ran across this post ^ on tumblr a little bit ago, and decided to look into a little. I googled some stuff about the whole incident and come to some conclusions. Here's what I posted on my tumblr in response:
This is offensive, not only to Taylor who's choosing to not put up her music on Spotify, but to other artists as well. Spotify is as close to illegal as you can get without actually being illegal, and using it as a primary source of music means that the artists don't get the money they deserve.
Taylor might be fine, because she is well known, but lesser known artists are going to lose their voices. Those that are on Spotify don't earn much from the site to begin with, and if people don't buy their music, but listen to it for "free" instead, they earn next to nothing, which will put them out of business (ie they will be unable to make more music). Those that can't be on Spotify eventually might not be able to make their music anymore either, since less people will buy their music, instead choosing to listen to what's available "free" online.
Taylor herself said "Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. It’s my opinion that music should not be free" [x]
Taylor is making a bold move, and I applaud her for stepping up. She's a big enough name for people to take notice. Yeah, free, available music is nice, but so is being able to share your talent with the world and get rewarded for it in the proper way. As an artist (writer), I appreciate the fact that she is standing up for others who don't have such a voice. The world needs to recognize that art is valuable and worth paying for, and artists should not be gypped for all their hard work.
I admit, I use Spotify, but not as a primary source of my music. Buying the music I love to support those artists has always been important to me, and if that means getting rid of, or at the very least changing Spotify altogether, then so be it.
If Spotify can find a way to properly compensate artists for "free listening" from their fans, then I have no problem with it becoming a bigger way to put out and listen to music. But as of right now, it's really a way for people to listen to music illegally, without it being "technically" illegal.
Think of it this way. The average song costs about a dollar. Artists on Spotify earn less than a cent per play (between $0.006 and $0.0084, to be exact, according to Spotify Artists, see link above). It takes over 100 times more to make the same amount of money. It's not fair to the artists.
I have more thoughts on this that aren't fully formed yet, but let me know what you think. I'm willing to hear other opinions, but I think that we need to understand that art is important and valuable, and should be treated as such.
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