This Wednesday, Spotify announced that it has reached the milestone of ten million paid subscribers on its streaming service. This marks an important milestone in the company’s long career.
While basic business practices will not change as a result of the milestone, Spotify’s place as a leader in streaming is further solidified. And as CD and download sales are rapidly declining, many are seeing streaming as music’s salvation.
Issues of fair pay, or whether or not an artist would be able to subsist on streaming revenue have been addressed numerous times without much change in policy. In fact, streaming services like Pandora or Spotify themselves have never posted a profit. The first quarter this year saw Pandora report $28.9 million in losses; in 2012, Spotify lost more about $78 million, while raising more than $500 million in investment capital.
Read more on the New York Times.