from the no,-it-doesn't... dept

We've definitely seen plenty of confusion from record labels over the value of Spotify and similar services. But, a heavy metal/hardcore label, Century Media (which runs a variety of smaller labels: InsideOutMusic, Superballmusic, Ain't no Grave Records, Hollywood Waste and People Like You) has claimed that it's pulling all its music from Spotify to "protect artists." It's a funny way to "protect" artists by punishing fans who want to hear them. They complain that "physical sales are dropping drastically in all countries where Spotify is active." Their assumption appears to be that correlation is causation, and merely removing their works from Spotify will now shoot sales back up. But that's not how things work. If anything, it seems likely that this move will accelerate their problems with physical sales. Not only will people not want to buy CDs, they won't even know about the musicians on this label. They'll just listen to someone else instead. The way you protect artists is by helping them to better connect with fans, not making it even more difficult. If I were a band on a Century Label, I'd be pretty pissed off that the label has unilaterally decided to piss off a bunch of my fans and stop many potential fans from discovering my music.