'The Death of Spotify: Why Streaming is Minutes Away From Being Obsolete'
Source: Slashdot
I’m going to take the diplomatic hat off here and say with brutal honesty: basically everybody in the music business hates Spotify except for the people who work there. It’s a platform that sucks artists for everything they have, it actively prevents community building, and, despite all of that, the platform still struggles to maintain a healthy profit margin.
The Streaming Business Model Is Fundamentally Broken
The streaming business model is fundamentally broken, and eventually its demise will become more and more obvious. Below are the key reasons the DSP (Digital Service Provider) era is grinding to a halt, why major labels are quietly terrified, and why artists who don’t pivot now risk going down with the ship.
Industry Perspective
“The streaming services have a bad situation, there’s no margins, they’re not making any money.” – Jimmy Iovine
This model only works for Apple, Amazon, and Google, because they don’t need their music platforms to be wildly profitable. Amazon uses music as a loss‑leader to keep you paying for Prime. Apple uses it to sell $1,000 iPhones. As for Spotify—or any standalone music streaming company—they’re kind of screwed. When the platform’s margins are structurally squeezed, the first to feel the pressure are the artists.
What Might Replace DSPs?
If the DSPs are “minutes away from obsolete,” what replaces them? While they won’t disappear overnight, artists and managers need to focus on direct ownership. The artists who will survive the next five years are the ones quietly shifting their focus away from the “ATM Machine” model.
- Building their own cultural hangars
- Capturing phone numbers on platforms like Laylo
- Driving fans to private Discord servers
- Focusing on ARPF (Average Revenue Per Fan) through high‑margin merch, vinyl, and hard tickets rather than begging for fractions of a penny from playlist placements
We are witnessing the death of the “Mass Audience” and the birth of the “Micro‑Community.”