We all knew it was too good to be true. Not free; not even ‘free with commercials’ (even if Spotify is still a much better service than any free TV channel, in my personal opinion which is perhaps uncommon).
It’s not so bad yet, but if you’re using the free version of Spotify, expect more of your favorite artists’ labels to ban hits. I wholeheartedly support each and every artist to choose who sells their songs and where, though.
I could have a small problem with songs published decades ago which sold in the millions. Is a song ever successful enough? Profitable enough? Someone needs to let go. Nevertheless, it’s still the artist‘s choice.
The Spotify message says “The artist/label has chosen to make this track unavailable.”, but you can bet it’s extremely likely that it’s the label rather than the artist that has chosen. (It’s a bit curious that some of the blocked songs have no Buy button. Likely, the label had a problem with Spotify making a small profit.)
I foresee that this choosing :) will increase exponentially until Spotify basically becomes iTunes.
In a new world where the culture is to make music rather than consume music, and “everyone” makes songs but still the same extremely few get published or even heard, there needs to be a shift of attitudes and distribution. Services like Spotify could play a large part in this new world, hopefully reflecting the culture of their time.
Imagine a combined service where anyone could discover and search free and commercial music. People could listen to anything, but have to pay to listen to the promoted, published few.
Boy, isn’t that vision scary. For everyone but the audience.
Perpetuum Immobile 