Saving the Spotify Revolution: Recalibrating the Power Imbalance in Digital Copyright
Saving the Spotify Revolution: Recalibrating the Power Imbalance in Digital Copyright
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拯救 Spotify 革命：重新调整数字版权中的权力不平衡
DOI：
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发表时间：
2012
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
E. Teague
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作者：
E. Teague
许多人认为Spotify将彻底改变音乐产业，为文件共享提供一个法律的替代方案，补偿音乐家使用他们的数字音乐。那么，为什么艺术家们成群结队地放弃了Spotify革命呢？因为革命也有黑暗的一面。由于Spotify的部分股权归各大唱片公司所有，因此它与独立艺术家存在严重的利益冲突。Spotify的资金流缺乏透明度，这让音乐人有更多的理由怀疑该服务是否考虑到了他们的利益，特别是考虑到Spotify迄今为止向艺术家支付的微小版税。这种怀疑的气氛导致许多艺术家放弃了这项服务，转而寻求其他的数字发行和推广方式。甚至听众也开始离开Spotify，因为它对待艺术家的方式。具有讽刺意味的是，Spotify已经设法疏远了它所需要的盟友：艺术家，他们提供Spotify的“无限”歌曲库，以及听众，他们通过订阅和广告为服务提供资金。因此，Spotify革命注定要失败--这是一个不幸的现实，因为流媒体音乐商业模式有巨大的潜力使艺术家受益，并为版权的根本目标服务。我认为，拯救Spotify革命的最有效方法是通过强制许可计划。这是因为Spotify改变对待艺术家的主要障碍是它与竞争压力的隔离，这最终源于主要唱片公司在数字录音中强大的讨价还价地位。这些唱片公司在流媒体音乐中承担了守门人的职能，要求公司股权以换取他们的录音，每一个流媒体服务都需要这些录音来建立一个全面的目录。因此，流媒体音乐市场的参与者非常少，所有这些都被主要唱片公司部分控制。强制许可将使主要唱片公司的录音更容易被潜在的流媒体服务获得。一个更具竞争力的市场将带来更大的透明度，
Many believed that Spotify would revolutionize the music industry, offering a legal alternative to file sharing that compensates musicians for use of their digital music. Why, then, have artists been abandoning the Spotify revolution in droves? Because the revolution has a dark side. Since Spotify is part-owned by the major labels, it has a serious conflict of interest with independent artists. Spotify’s lack of transparency about its financial flows gives musicians further reason to suspect whether the service has their interests in mind, particularly in light of the microscopic royalties that Spotify has paid out to artists to date. This climate of suspicion has caused many artists to abandon the service and pursue alternative means of digital distribution and promotion. Even listeners have begun leaving Spotify on account of how it treats artists. Ironically, Spotify has managed to alienate the very audiences that it needs as allies: artists, who supply Spotify’s “unlimited” song library, and listeners, who fund the service through subscriptions and advertising. As such, the Spotify revolution is destined to fail—an unfortunate reality, as the streaming music business model has great potential to benefit artists and serve the underlying goals of copyright. I argue that the most effective way to save the Spotify revolution is through a compulsory licensing scheme. This is because the primary impediment to Spotify changing its treatment of artists is its insulation from competitive pressures, which ultimately stems from the major labels’ formidable bargaining position in digital sound recordings. The labels have assumed a gatekeeping function in streaming music, demanding corporate equity in exchange for access to their sound recordings, which every streaming service needs in order to build a comprehensive catalog. As a result, the streaming music market has very few participants, all of which are partially controlled by the major labels. Compulsory licensing would make the major labels’ sound recordings more readily accessible to would-be streaming services. A more competitive marketplace will lead to greater transparency and