[markng]

The "disappearing playlist" the parent refers to is a licensing issue, not a technical one, as far as I could tell. When I was in the UK (now in the US), whole artists catalogs would go missing all at once. I eventually stopped paying for the service because of this (it wiped out about 10% of the content from my playlists).

[forza]

Correct, this was probably the biggest "disappearing playlist" event: http://www.spotify.com/us/blog/archives/2009/01/28/some-impo...

[sambeau]

Agreed. As I recall small labels started removing themselves as they weren't making any money from it.

[gmac]

Hmm. I wonder if they were making money from it indirectly, though. I use Spotify mainly as a try-before-you-buy service, and I wouldn't be suprised if others did too.

[seabee]

From their POV it's only marginally more profitable than piracy. Thus I expect the attitudes to be similar (and varying between artists).

[sambeau]

True. I have on a number of occasions tried on Spotify and bought on iTunes.

[jsherry]

This is great insight: something I haven't experienced and therefore didn't address in my original response to the parent. Thanks.