This post was written by FMC intern Danny Weiss.

When Spotify launched in the US back in July, we were pretty stoked about the service’s flexibility, response and depth of features. We’ve spent a few months with it, and, as a consumer product, it is still very impressive. Now that we’re past the infatuation phase, it’s time to take a closer look at the relationship between Spotify and musicians, particularly independents. For those just tuning in, Spotify is a streaming on-demand music service that has an ad-supported free version, as well as a premium, ad-free subscription option. Unlike say, Pandora, Spotify lets you choose which specific songs you want to hear and create playlists. This means that on-demand services like Spotify (and MOG, Rhapsody and Rdio) have to pay a different license than radio-like services.