Books

Just finished. Strongly reinforces that deleting my Spotify account recently was the correct decision.

Great read if you love music and are concerned about platforms and their impact on artist’s ability to earn a living wage.

Hmmm not sure about the first part. Merlin is the fourth largest label on the platform and anyone can join via platforms like DistroKid/CD Baby, etc. and grew v fast.

PFC was meant for background music and high volume/low margin playback that took away revenue share from labeled artists.

Did the book address both?

Well the book makes a very compelling case that a one-size-fits-all platform like Spotify creates an environment that is near impossible for newcomers/indies to break into, made even worse by the algorithm prioritizing PFC (perfect fit content) that is created expressly to reduce the amount of royalties paid out to said artists. It’s a real mess. We need platforms where subscribers end up directly supporting artists instead.