[mrgreenfur]

Totally agree. Maybe spotify should look like an app store with fees in the 30% range at the top end (shopify/apple/steam). Their role is very similar: distribution and discovery. They probably could wi points giving better payouts per stream to smaller artists too, like steam does. Hopefully competition will force it down too (eg epic vs steam vs apple). We might need open access to back catalogues and not exclusive deals, but its a start

[mattnewton]

The App Store for music exists many times over and users (including myself) prefer a lower cost streaming model. There is simply too much cheap or free music out there now for me to value it at iTunes singles prices.

[wtetzner]

Of course, and users would prefer completely free music over cheap music too. That doesn't mean it's sustainable, though.

[mattnewton]

I mean, short of government legislation the market isn’t going to stop driving the price of music down. The marginal cost of additional “performances” of the song is almost zero and people are constantly making new recordings for free because they love doing so. I don’t see why making a living off digitally recorded music has to be sustainable, and I don’t see how it can be when the supply is so endless.

[wtetzner]

It very well may not be sustainable. But I guess my point is that Spotify's business model might turn out to not be sustainable if artists decide it's not worth it to have their music on it.

If they don't decide that, then of course, maybe you just can't make a living selling music through Spotify.

You could probably make a living as a musician in other ways, though.