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Pretty much since the moment music became shareable online and music streaming services

started popping up, there's been a tug of war over the royalties that those services pay

out.

The artists, record labels, and music publishers all believing those payouts should be higher.

That's especially true at Spotify, which is the leader in audio streaming worldwide.

They've got 268 million paid subscribers as of the first quarter,

678 million monthly active users, both numbers up about 10% year over year.

Remember, the music labels were initial investors in Spotify,

yet as the platform has grown,

it's often been looked at skeptically by artists and their representatives.

Taylor Swift famously pulled her music a decade ago over the low artist payouts, particularly

on the ad-supported free tier of the service.

But lately, Spotify has been aggressively countering that narrative.

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