I'm not sure it is better than piracy. In both cases, there's no further incentive for a consumer to pay out to get better access to the music. AFAICT at curre

I'm not sure it is better than piracy. In both cases, there's no further incentive for a consumer to pay out to get better access to the music. AFAICT at current royalty rates, artists get about the same amount of money they get from piracy. Except with piracy, people know the way they obtained the music is questionable/unsustainable, so in some people it probably creates a drive towards future patronage of some kind. Meanwhile, Spotify gives the illusion that you're involved in a legitimate transaction and have more or less done your duty, while what's basically happening behind the scenes is we have a "disruptor" whose main innovation so far appears to be replacing recording revenues with the fractional broadcast revenue. Better experience for the consumer, though!