Record labels keep a large amount of Spotify earnings. Spotify claims it benefits the industry by migrating users away from piracy and less monetized platforms and encouraging them to upgrade to paid accounts. The tier has led to a variety of major album releases being delayed or withdrawn from the service. Spotify faces particular scrutiny due to its free service tier, which allows users to listen free with advertisements between tracks.

Multiple artists have criticised the policy, most notably Thom Yorke and Taylor Swift, who temporarily withdrew their music from the service. Spotify distributes approximately 70% of its total revenue to rights holders, who then pay artists based on their individual agreements. Unlike physical sales or downloads, which pay artists a fixed price per song or album sold, Spotify pays royalties based on the artist's 'market share'-the number of streams for their songs as a proportion of total songs streamed on the service. Spotify, a music streaming company, has attracted significant criticism since its 2006 launch, mainly over artist compensation. ( February 2018) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.

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