Why Spotify Is Failing Everyone

Thank you to Bombas for sponsoring this video! Head to https://bombas.yt.link/bUYKbL5 and use code ZACKARY at checkout for 20% off your first purchase. Patreon: Patreon: ZackarySmigel Twitter: Twitter: zas11s Instagram: Instagram: zas11s Everything else: https://linktr.ee/zackarysmigel Here are the chapters for this video. Feel free to jump around accordingly: 0:00 Introduction 0:56 The Origin Story: How Spotify Was Created 2:02 Spotify App Review: Problems, Glitches & Price Hikes 3:46 Rising Subscription Costs & Employee Layoffs Explained 4:56 Taylor Swift, Lily Allen, and Spotify's Artist Pay Controversy 5:42 Sponsor Segment – Bombas 6:57 How Spotify Pays Artists (And Why It’s Confusing) 7:58 The Problem With Spotify’s Pro-Rata Payment Model 9:20 Royalty Splits, Secret Contracts & Playlist Deals 10:53 How Spotify Changed the Sound of Modern Music 12:26 What Is “Spotify-Friendly” Music? 13:22 Virality Over Art: How Labels Game the System 14:51 Ghost Artists: Spotify’s Shady Playlist Strategy 17:26 AI Music Is Flooding Spotify — Here’s What’s Happening 17:51 Real Examples of Ghost and AI Artists 19:00 The Velvet Sundown Controversy Explained 19:51 Should AI Music Be Labeled for Listeners? 21:05 Where Is All the Money Going? 22:00 Spotify’s Market Cap & Daniel Ek’s $724M Payday 23:30 Is Spotify’s Business Model Sustainable? 24:15 Spotify Is Selling Your Mood Data to Advertisers 25:48 Final Thoughts – Why Spotify Is Quietly Ruining Music Stock valuation data sourced from Qualtrim. Used under fair use for commentary and educational purposes. This video is not affiliated with or endorsed by Qualtrim. Visit https://www.qualtrim.com or @josephcarlsonshow Check out Mood Machine by Liz Pelly to learn more: https://lizpelly.info/book This video is not affiliated with or endorsed by Liz Pelly, but her book was a massive resource during my research. I highly recommend checking it out. Assistant Editor and Graphic Designer: ‪@JoeMrozek‬ Note: I deliberately leave the channel icons and video titles on each video for reference in case anyone wants to see the full videos featured in these documentaries. If anything is unclear, or for additional references, please reach out, and I will happily provide a link to any of the following content discussed, featured, or used as a b-roll in the video. Copyright Note: Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Music: All songs featured in the video are from: Epidemic Sound: https://share.epidemicsound.com/8mvwnm (referral link) YouTube's Audio Library Kevin MacLeod's royalty free music library: http://incompetech.com/ Ian Taylor's RuneScape Music library owned by Jagex LTD. Please check out their music on Spotify if you are into that style. I cannot emphasize enough how good the music is. =-=-=-= Thanks so much for watching! You all are the best. #youtube #videoessay #zackarysmigel =-=-=-= Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more engaging video commentary! =-=-=-=