Lady Gaga Earns Slightly More From Spotify Than Piracy

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In August, Swedish artist and composer Magnus Uggla launched a scathing attack on the owners of Spotify . After discovering that Sony BMG is a shareholder and receiving virtually no cash from his music being played there, he withdrew his tracks from the service and stormed away, declaring controversially: “I’d rather be raped by The Pirate Bay.” Nevertheless, Uggla insisted that Spotify is a fantastic service with a great range of music to sample. However, he felt that the fact he wasn’t getting paid was the fault of the major labels involved in the project (Sony BMG bought 5.8% of Spotify for 2,935 Euros, Universal Music got 4.8% for 2,446 euros, Warner Music paid 1,957 Euros for 3.8% and EMI pocketed 1.9% for an investment of 980 Euros), claiming that he “earned as much in six months as a BUSKER could earn in a day.” As the dust settled on the story, many non-Swedish readers were saying “Magnus who?” and wondering if this artist’s lack of mainstream popularity was the real reason behind him earning virtually nothing.