But like I said - that's the deal with signing to a major label - you agree that they will take a lot of the profits for your album in return for shouldering th

But like I said - that's the deal with signing to a major label - you agree that they will take a lot of the profits for your album in return for shouldering the costs of recording and promoting it. Artists can always remain independent and just pay a unit cost for distribution, but that means taking the risk of spending their own money on recording, and doesn't necessesarily come with the marketing opportunities that come with being signed to a major label. I don't see Spotify as ethically dubious at all - they've had agreements with major labels from day one, and have only ever streamed music which they had a license for (unlike, say Grooveshark). Spotify only pays you if people lsiten to your music, in the same way that iTunes only pays you if people buy the music. It's the same deal, just on a 'per listen' not a 'per purchase' basis. The only issue with Spotify as I see it is that they don't pay artists (or their representative labels, which again, the artists signed up for) all that much, but like I said, they're not actually earning that much money either.