Spotify’s executives are being put under pressure by major labels to restrict its free usage service, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Led by Universal, the labels are said to unhappy that free streaming is allegedly having a negative impact on both physical and digital music sales; Universal Music CEO Lucian Grainge has previously said of so-called ‘freemium’ platforms: “Ad-funded on-demand is not going to sustain the entire ecosystem of the creators as well as the investors.”
Those behind Spotify aren’t thought to be receptive to any change though, as non-subscription listeners still make up the significant majority of its user-base.
“Without free, pay has never succeeded,” Spotify’s Jonathan Foster has said. “We’re one of the greenest shoots of growth in the industry. We don’t want to destabilise that. We think that this model works.”
Streaming figures were recently reflected in the UK Album Chart for the first time, thanks to a pretty dubious formula.