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Originally Posted by Clonkified  Spotify's business model is not sustainable. iMeem proved that. MySpace Music is trying to do ad-supported streaming but is bleeding money. Grooveshark is like Seeqpod - it will be shutdown imminently. Ad-supported music doesn't work based on the current monetary asks of the content owners (labels). Ad revenue just isn't high enough. |
Ad supported may not be sustainable, but most people I know who have used Spotify have ended up paying for the premium subscription service, because the user experience and interface is so good and intuitive.
And that's the key. Make the user experience such a no-brainer that people will gladly pay for a monthly subscription. Spotify has done that, where iMeem, Myspace and others have failed (not to mention the audio quality issue). But as long as artists and labels are so afraid of the future and continue to cling so tightly to the current paradigm despite the fact that it's clearly sinking fast, then the process is going to take a lot longer and result in a lot more lost revenue for those artists and labels.