In the article, Youorski addresses the controversy related to the free option of Spotify. The article is divided into sections about Spotify’s merchandise sales, how much each song costs, the economic benefits of buying the paid version of the program, and the business model of Spotify. The research in the article asserts that musicians do not lose money because they can sell their merchandise on their Spotify profile (Youorski). The author goes on to describe the economic benefits for Spotify users, stating that “average pay for each stream of a song is between .006 and .0084 of a cent” (Youorski). This disproves the argument that Spotify pirates their music. Spotify also claims that 70% of the money earned goes back into royalty payments for rights owners. Because of their payment ratio and increasing usage, Youorski claims that Spotify may be losing up to 77 million dollars a year. Overall the article discusses both the positive and negative aspects of Spotify’s economy related to consumer concerns, relating to the topic of how Spotify affects culture. Because this article was written over 2 years ago, Spotify revenue may have dramatically changed, proving that this source may not have valid statistics for a research …show more content…
Her case study discusses the opinions music industry professionals, artists, and users have on Spotify and related streaming music services. Swanson researches the history of digitalized music, the income of music streaming programs, how Spotify has altered economics, the future of the industry, and the perceived positives and negatives of Spotify from various audiences. Swanson began her study by asking a variety of bands about their perceptions of Spotify. Her surveys found that all the bands who participated found “no negative sales impacts as a result of streaming services” (214). Additionally, the artists appreciated the music streaming service for exposing their music and creating a larger fan base (213). Swanson’s research concerning consumer’s opinions found that “55 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 are using the on-demand service Spotify on a daily or weekly basis” (214). This shows that Spotify is popular and well-liked among users, but a defined opinion about the program could not be found. Swanson also found that both publishers and distributors could not find any downturn in sales due to Spotify’s service and continue to use it. Overall, the case study effectively addresses how the public views Spotify and contradict Paste Magazine’s argument about how the free service negatively impacts the music industry