Spotify Was a Terrible Business. Then the Record Labels Stepped In.

Spotify may have saved the record labels. But the record labels saved Spotify, too.

Here at Gadfly, we've chronicled the music industry's long, slow, still-incomplete revenue rebound, in large part because Spotify (and others) convinced consumers and record executives that subscriptions for digital music were the industry's best way out of the darkness. The music industry isn't financially healthy yet, but Spotify has helped industry revenue grow again for the first time since the CD was king.