“Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by these creators.”

Although this has been their mission, it's been hard for musicians to realistically make money from the service. When Spotify launched in the U.S. in 2008, music consumption shifted drastically and they were a promising company with a promising mission statement. The dramatic shift Spotify created, as well as other changes in recording cultures and genre, “have made clear what has long been true: there is no single music industry, but sets of related yet specific practices that can encompass many different approaches to sound recording” (Barnett and Harvey 104). After 2008, everything was in flux and music industry individuals were left scrambling to figure it out. From executives to artists, all participants had to adapt in order to attain success in this new—more heightened—digital age. Even though this change was exciting, artist royalties became an issue of debate. In 2014, Taylor Swift pulled her entire repertoire from Spotify to underscore the ridiculous payment method Spotify had. She made the public vehemently aware of the royalty fees, which were around $0.006 and $0.0084 per stream (Zia). “Shifting formats, protocols and business models transform all aspects of what Christopher Small has dubbed ‘musicking’” (104) and everyone musics to some degree. We, as listeners, participate on some level. As digital technology changes how music is made, it also changes how music is consumed. It changes how much it is worth and who gets paid. Oftentimes, a royalty has to be split between four or five different people who contributed to the song. However, this industry has always been in flux and this is not the first time music has had to adapt from one form to another (i.e. vinyl to tape to CD). However, despite the obstacles Spotify has encountered this past year, they will not be easy to dethrone.

New media technologies will always be the driving force “in reorganizing the practices, regimes of value, discourses and power relationships tied to recording businesses and cultures” (Barnett and Harvey 106) and this is just one step along the way. Thankfully, new legislation has been underway since January that will increase royalty rates. The Copyright Royalty Board ruled to increase songwriter rates for streaming platforms by 43.8% over the next five years and the new rate will be based on the greater of either (a) a percentage of revenue or (b) total content costs (Zia).This effectively affords writers some free-market power and reduces the disparity between how much they are paid versus the record labels. Although it is still a large gap, now for every $3.82 to the label, a writer/publisher gets $1.00. This will surely make Spotify’s artists happier, because Spotify will be required to pay 15.1% of their revenue to the songwriters and publishers, which is an increase from the previous 10.5%. Again, because of technology, industries are constantly in flux and there are always trade-offs. Although it is a huge step toward proper artist royalties, that may mean that Spotify has to increase users’ monthly subscriptions. These are issues that users have to think about as well when they are choosing a streaming service. If I have been loyal to Apple for ten years, why would I be attracted to Spotify? I could use their freemium service for some variety in playlists, but I will only want to pay for one premium subscription. Apple will remain one of Spotify's major concerns for 2018. Below is a chart from the Company Reports that outlines Apple's growth from 2015 to present 2018 in comparison to Spotify. 

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