This graphic brilliantly illustrates the economics of selling recorded music in 2012.

I’m not one of those people who cries “Napster killed the music industry!” There are numerous opportunities for me to reach audiences with my music that didn’t exist in a pre-digital world.

And a service like Spotify allows people who would otherwise not buy an artist’s music to give it a chance. A few months ago I discovered Bon Iver’s new album, checked out a few songs on Spotify, loved it, then promptly downloaded it on iTunes because I needed it in my iPod. Had I not liked it, I would have moved on.

So there’s that. Exposure.

But let’s not pretend anyone is going to earn any money from Spotify.

Get to the bottom of this graphic and you tell me. Is Spotify helpful to an artist?

Source: informationisbeautiful.net

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