Popular artists are opting not to make their song and albums available on streaming music sites such as Spotify, Mog and Rdio to increase their sales and revenue.
The list include Coldplay, Tom Wait and British singing sensation Adele. The latter’s album 21 was the biggest album last year. Her songs like Someone Like you and Rolling in the Deep have etched their marks to the hearts and minds of her followers.
This comes as a huge blow for the streaming sites that charge their subscriber $5 to $10 a month to listen to music as much as they want. The sites pay the artists a royalty premium every time their song is being listened to online. But some artists don’t think that they are being paid dutifully.
According to Coldplay’s manager Dave Holmes, “I am very concerned. Spotify competes with download stores.” Mylo Xyloto, the band’s next album is due for release this coming October. But the manager also noted that, “like all of Coldplay’s other titles, the new album will be on Spotify eventually.”
This strategy is similar to movie studio strategies. In that, they first release the films to theaters, then DVD’s and later on cable channels and streaming sites. This strategy will maximize the revenue for both the movie and TV producers. According to Needham analyst Laura Martin, “It certainly hurts Spotify’s perceived value in the consumer frequently searches for songs that aren’t there, even if that represents a small fraction of titles.”
