Most people who enjoy listening to music probably appreciate
Spotify. Spotify is a place where you can stream music online for free (if you
also accept advertisement) or for a monthly fee (without ads). It has tons of
music available for everyone through top lists, genres and other tools that you
can just click and start listening to the type of music that suits you.
I don’t think anyone would argue that Spotify is a great
place to easily access quality music and it would therefore be very good for Spotify’s
customers. But is it ethical towards the artists who work incredibly hard on
creating their music to get so little in return?
From one stream of a song on Spotify the artist earns 0.006
to 0.0084 dollars[1]. An
album may consist of about 15 songs and if you listen to each song on that
album through Spotify it would mean that the band or artist earns $0.126 whilst
buying a whole album, on iTunes for example, can costs $12.99 (Taylor Swift, 1989)[2].
The artists who do not focus as much on making money as on
making music and sharing it with the wold would most likely agree with the
Spotify users, that it is a great way to be able to listen to music wherever
you are.
Some would argue that it is fair seeing as the artists still
earn royalties and the alternative would have been piracy for a lot of people
which would have been illegal and earned the artist nothing, it would basically
be stealing. Piracy is a growing problem within the music industry so having a
streaming tool that still generates money, even if it is less than they perhaps
should get, may therefore be considered a good thing. And what generates most
money for artists in general is still touring and playing gigs. Even so, there are artists who has chosen not to share
their music on Spotify, The Beatles for example. Arguments for this may be such
as the artists have a profession and as such they should be respected for it
which also means being properly paid.
Spotify has therefore taken music lovers into consideration
and thought about the need people have for music and for their sake made a tool
for them to use. They can either listen to music for free but also having to
listen to ads, or pay a certain amount of money every month without ads.[3]
The users have the possibility to listen for free, whilst
the artists and bands still get paid.
The people who work at Spotify take both consumers and
stakeholders (the bands/artists) in consideration when working and developing
their company. The stakeholders get to share their products efficiently whilst
the consumers have cheap and easy access to it. Spotify is trying to achieve a
balance between the two parties so that everyone can appreciate the work
created and be happy about it.
There is no doubt that Spotify makes a lot of money from
this huge industry. But there is still a matter of opinion whether it is
ethically correct or not to share the music in this way seeing as the artists
are being “ripped off” their rightful earnings.
https://www.google.se/search?q=spotify&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAmoVChMI2qD1lcK6yAIVCfByCh0T0QCt#tbm=isch&q=spotify+user&imgrc=lR24atIxHb7j-M%3A 2015-10-11
