‘Spotify is not the enemy’ says Quincy Jones

Spotify has been getting an awful lot of press recently, what with Taylor Swift so very publicly ditching the service and dubbing music streaming as an ‘experiment’. But the service has one powerful ally in the form of musician/producer Quincy Jones.

In a response to Taylor Swift’s controversial actions, Jones published a letter to fans on his Facebook page expressing his support for Spotify which presumably extends to other similar streaming services.

“I’m proud to support my partners at Spotify at this crucial moment in their growth. Spotify is not the enemy; piracy is the enemy.  Spotify is paying out 70% of their revenue to musicians and rightsholders. If I had to release Thriller today, you can be sure I’d want it on Spotify. The genie is not going back in the bottle friends; let’s work together to find solutions to the music industry’s problems.”

While a lot of people have been critical of Jones and the post in the Facebook comment, it’s nice to know that streaming services still have some powerful allies. While Spotify might not pay out a lot, it’s still more than an artist would get if someone pirated the music. Plus some musicians are even getting more out of Spotify than they do out of iTunes.

Image: World Economic Forum via Wikimedia Commons

Tom Pritchard