[ryanhuff]

Is it really true that a sustainable distribution model needs to work for all of these stakeholders? Sustainable doesn't necessarily mean that it puts food on everybody's table, but instead, that it just exists, and that the participants (musicians and users) reach mutual agreement through their activities/participation.

Wouldn't musicians continue to produce and distribute music even if they weren't able to monetize it through sales? Sure, its great to reward musicians for their work, and they'd love to sell CD's and digital downloads, but being a practicing musician seems to be one of those things that musicians are driven to do, regardless of whether there is a paycheck associated with it. If music sales disappeared tomorrow, my guess is that musicians would continue to produce quality music and find an audience.

If Spotify isn't "working" for makers of music, then either Spotify will fail, the expectations of "makers of music" will change to match the reality of Spotify.

[hcurtiss]

I find this comment really unfortunate. I suspect you'll find that, notwithstanding their love of the trade, musicians are just as interested in getting paid as the rest of us. Unfortunately, given high transaction costs (in the econ 101 sense), they're not very well positioned to negotiate better terms. The only way they get paid is if the music consumer purchases their product in a manner that benefits the artist. As the comments above indicate, Spotify is not it.