Around one month ago, Katie Applebaum wrote a blog post about the importance of a recording studio that caters to the “middle class” of musicians, who are serious about pursuing careers in the industry, but do not have the money to break into it. She gave the example of Monarch Studios who offers an aesthetic studio with high end equipment and expertise at a relatively low and affordable cost.

While I agree with Katie about the importance of Monarch Studios, I disagree with her about the effect that piracy and music apps have on up and coming artists.  In a recent Comm 101 class, I had the opportunity to hear from the owner of Monarch Studios, Tom Dobrzanski about his views on piracy.  He said that while piracy negatively impacts big names in the music industry, it can help create band awareness in a “middle class” band that is trying to break into the industry – his clientele.  As for music sharing apps such as  Spotify, 8tracks and Pandora,  artists can register through these apps and create a hype for themselves as well as make some profit.  For example, the profit that Spotify actually earns is divided into ~30% by Spotify and ~70% by the Rights Holders of these songs.

Taken from http://www.spotifyartists.com/spotify-explained