From Paris, with love (and some astute market criticisms) – Music Business Worldwide

The music business has been forever changed these past few years by the stock exchange.

Following the likes of returned to the public markets via an IPO on the NASDAQ.

And famously, last year, day-one valuation.

In some ways, though, the flotation on the Paris stock exchange of

Let’s talk about TuneCore: You recently announced a change in pricing that enables DIY artists to upload as many tracks as they like for $14.99 a year. Can that help you scale to catch

“Major labels are pushing for lower rates for these artists, and I think that’s wrong.”

All of our experience shows us that the return on that investment for developing artists when using these tools is great.

When you look at the P&L of any of the major record labels, the ‘marketing and promo’ line is still one of the most significant areas of investment.

And when your audiences become digital, the best way to spend money is where the audience is already listening to music.

So, yes, we’ve been a big supporter of Spotify Discovery, because Spotify Discovery is pushing discovery of our artists to users that would not otherwise have listened to them as it supports revenue growth.

Is Spotify doing enough to keep a clear line between Discovery Mode and what was once called payola?

It’s a really good question.

And I think the way they’re framing it right now is correct: this is not guaranteeing airplay.

In our experience, Spotify Discovery puts the user at the center of the experience: [Speaking as Spotify] ‘I’m not able to guarantee anything [to the Discovery Mode artist] because I first want the user to be satisfied.

If the user starts skipping a track [the platform recognizes] I shouldn’t be marketing that track.’

And then it’s about being very clear to the user that [the Discovery track] is a sponsored track.

But I think the way it is being done now aligns with how you would do traditional marketing, rather than payola.