At the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit earlier this week in Washington, D.C., where Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek gave a talk, hallway chatter centered around licensing ISPs the way the music industry does radio, and Spotify was often mentioned as a services that could potentially make that happen. And it has already proven capable of inking deals at the ISP/telco level.
If ISPs in the United States offer the same, opt-in model that Telia will offer in Sweden, consumers will likely relish that freedom. However, it remains to be seen whether labels in the United States will be willing to abandon their dream of licensing 100 percent of an ISP?s subscribers in a single stroke. read more