to worry that spotify is not an ethical way to consume music

[toriuk]

In my house we all use Spotify a lot. However I hadn't realised the controversy it has had with not paying artists fairly.

Now one of the most powerful women TS has deleted all her music its got me concerned about the service.

I love Spotify. Well worth the £10 a month. It has got me into bands I would never have heard of.

Well then OP our definitions of powerful clearly differ if you honestly think TS is more powerful than both Obama and the queen.

Can't say I've ever heard of the manga carta, no.

The MAGNA carta on the other hand...

The Manga Carta is the Japanese illustrated version.

NorwaySpruce If you mean that you don't pay for music because you don't find it worth listening to, fair enough. But if you're listening and not bothering to pay because you figure they are making "£££££" then I call bullshit. There is a huge amount of music out there in infinite varieties and styles. Only a tiny fraction of the artists make "£££££" from their music. If you think pop is crap, then don't listen to it - but don't steal it, either.

I do listen to Spotify on occasion to check something out, but it doesn't replace my music purchases (the same goes for Youtube, and I mostly listen to official videos where the label is at least getting something.) The only time I have taken music via file sharing was when the album was out of print and there was no way to give revenue to the artist - a friend gave me the files. (Come to think of it, that time it was an album I had bought on vinyl in the 80's so it's not like I never did pay for it.)

I get a lot of my music via bandcamp, in which the artist (sometimes a label) is selling it themselves and gets paid directly (after a small commission to the website and, of course, paypal.) Quite a lot of music on Bandcamp is "name your price" and I always at least donate a couple of quid. There's an amazing amount of music on there - I go for metal but there are all genres, just not huge pop stars.

I also get some of it buying CD's at gigs. I like knowing that my tenner will help them buy petrol to the next town.

Ours is a consumers market.

Using Spoyify isn't stealing.

If my children want to listen to pop music, I'll pay £10 a month, but that's my limit, and if that £10 also gets me something I can cope with listening to, all the better.

Have to say that Spotify do NOT pay artists all the time. My brother's album is on there, has been listened to and he has never received a penny. Ever.

I don't even know who Taylor Swift is. Just off to Google.....

I agree that using Spotify isn't stealing - at least not on the part of the consumer. But I don't think Spotify is an ethical company.

Here is an article on streaming, it's growth, Spotify and associated issues with links to further information, calculations etc if you want to know more: thetrichordist.com/2013/02/08/music-streaming-math-will-it-all-add-up/

Garth Brooks, who is a massive artist controls 100% of his digital music. If you want to legitimately buy GB digital music you must go to his website. Great for him, but this is supported by his huge existing fan base and much touring. Not a business model for everyone.

torik cdbaby sells artists CD's directly and pays most of the price to the artist - there is no record label involved.

whereas most itunes sales, a record label is involved.

Manga Carta

Obama, Putin, Merkel, the Pope, Bill Gates, whoever's running Google and...Taylor Swift. Not really buying that idea.

Thanks be but that confused me is CD baby and iTunes lumped together in the same category on that stat?

Damn autocorrect on android making iTunes, how wank