Bits & Bytes 7/22

To Spotify or Not to Spotify? | Monday, July 22nd

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Monday, July 22nd To Spotify, or Not to Spotify...There's nothing like a good Twitter rant to jump start your week... really, it's better than coffee.... and when Nigel Godrich let one loose last week, the musical digerati broke out the cream and sugar. We're referring of course to supergroup, Atoms for Peace, and their very vocal decision to pull their music from Spotify because of the service's inability to pay small artists significant revenue. And while this act of defiance isn't new, it generated a lively discussion that at its worst, polarized music v tech | artists v corporations | curmudgeons v millennials (really, take a deep breath Bob, though of course he took the millennials side in this fight)... and at best, sought to pull apart the intrinsic problems that exist in the digital music industry while still acknowledging its benefits (thank you MusicAlly). SoundCtrl weighed in on this topic and we've included some other stand out pieces below which demonstrate the broad spectrum of opinion. It's also worth mentioning that the recent trouble Pandora finds itself in is reflective of the same dilemma - how do you dish out the pie so that everyone gets a fair slice? It's dystopic, but as Fortune boldly stated: "The fights we're watching may seem like debates over right and wrong, but are really just arguments over who should suffer the most."Ok if you're feeling a bit deflated right now, close your eyes, turn up your tunes (however you listen to them) and remember that this also happened in 2013.