The question of whether Spotify is killing the music industry is one of the most heated debates in the modern music business. Critics argue that Spotify pays artists a fraction of a cent per stream — typically between $0.003 and $0.005 — making it virtually impossible for all but the most popular artists to earn a living from streaming alone. Taylor Swift famously removed her entire catalogue from Spotify in 2014 in protest. Independent artists report earning less in a month of streaming than a single physical album sale in the 1990s would have generated. Spotify defenders argue that streaming saved the music industry from piracy, that total music revenue is growing again for the first time in decades, and that the platform gives emerging artists access to a global audience that was previously impossible. Is Spotify killing music or saving it?
