There is an overload of music. 60,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify every day. Over 20% of those don’t get streamed even once. The ubiquitous access to almost every piece of recorded music in history has led to a paradox of choice, promoting passive and playlist-driven music consumption and creating winner-take-all effects for the biggest artists.

Spotify seems to be trying to build out control of advertising and distribution of podcasting. With gatekeeping power over listeners through its streaming service, and gatekeeping power over ad revenue through its advertising network, Spotify will eventually be able to force podcasters to live in its ecosystem. It won’t be impossible to get listene... See more

Spotify launched in the US 10 years ago this month. Here's my best take at how economics flow from a $9.99 monthly subscription. Three takeaways: 1) Spotify only keeps ~33%, 2) Artists and songwriters don't get much, 3) Music is really, really complicated.