by Calvin Robinson on September 18, 2009.

After listening to Daniel Ek speak at Glasshouse last night, I’m predicting the end of the music industry as we know it.

Just imagine in a few years, if Spotify becomes ‘the way’ that people listen to music. Everyone around the world listens and shares music via Spotify – which is very possible. For years we’ve relied on mp3s and CDs. Let’s face it, nobody buys physical media any more, and with services like Spotify, piracy is becoming less of an issue.

The music industry has failed to modernise. They failed to provide people with what we want: easy access to music, on any device of our chosing. They tried to tie us down and it will be the death of them.

Now, back to Spotify ruling the world. Once Spotify become popular enough, I predict they’ll start going directly to artists, more and more, to arrange royalty deals. Of course is Spotify are dealing directly with artists, this cuts out the evil middle man – the record labels.

Spotify (and/or similar music services) could be the end of the music industry as we know it. By killing off the record labels completely, they make music about music again. Give control back to the artists. After all, record labels are not needed for distribution any more.

Of course there’s still the issue of marketing (which is about the only service record labels seem to offer these days), which will also solve it’s self in due course.

I look forward to a time with no Record Labels and in turn, no RIAA!