About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

4 Case W. Res. J.L. Tech. & Internet 207 (2012-2013)
Saving the Spotify Revolution: Recalibrating the Power Imbalance in Digital Copyright

handle is hein.journals/caswestres4 and id is 213 raw text is: JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY& THE INTERNET - VOL.4 - No.4 - 2012 SAVING THE SPOTIFY REVOLUTION: RECALIBRATING THE POWER IMBALANCE IN DIGITAL COPYRIGHT E. Jordan Teague, ABSTRACT Many believed that Spotify would revolutionize the music industry, offering a legal alternative to file sharing that compensates musicians for use of their digital music. Why, then, have artists been abandoning the Spotify revolution in droves? Because the revolution has a dark side. Since Spotify is partly-owned by major record labels, it has a serious conflict of interest with independent artists. Spotify's lack of transparency about its financial flows gives musicians further reason to question whether the service has their interests in mind, particularly in light of the microscopic royalties Spotify has paid artists to date. This climate of suspicion has caused many artists to abandon the service and pursue alternative means of digital distribution and promotion. Even listeners have begun leaving Spotify on account of how it treats artists. Ironically, Spotify has managed to alienate the very audiences it needs as allies: artists, who supply Spotify's unlimited song library; and listeners, who fund the service through subscriptions and advertising. As such, the Spotify revolution is destined to fail- an unfortunate reality, as the streaming music business model has great potential to benefit artists and serve the underlying goals of copyright. I argue that the most effective way to save the Spotify revolution is through a compulsory licensing scheme. This is because the primary impediment to Spotify changing its treatment of artists is its insulation from competitive pressures, which ultimately stems from the major labels' formidable bargaining position in digital sound recordings. The labels have assumed a gatekeeping function in streaming music, demanding corporate equity in exchange for access to their sound recordings, which every streaming service needs to build a comprehensive catalog. As a result, the streaming music market has very few participants, all of which are partially controlled 1. Jordan Teague is an associate at Burr & Forman LLP in Birmingham, Alabama. She received her J.D. in 2012 from Vanderbilt University Law School, where she was the Senior Technology Editor of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law. Jordan received her B.A. magna cum laude in Mathematics-Economics from Furman University in 2005. 207

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most