Roughly eleven months ago your correspondent was excitedly working on a short article detailing Spotify's announcement that it would be teaming up with Topspin to allow performers to peddle their merchandise on the streaming service via their official band pages. It was at least a mild relief knowing that musicians could make money some other way via Spotify since the royalty payments-per-stream are on the low side. Eleven months later, your correspondent is back to let you know that Spotify is done with Topspin.
As Digital Music News points out, those watching the market probably could have see this coming. Ian Rogers, the CEO at Topspin, however he's also got roots at Beats Music, a direct competitor with Spotify for the streaming market. He was appointed the head of iTunes Radio. Either way, he's competing with Spotify now and it doesn't make much sense for his other company to have a direct relationship with them.
Not to say that things are going so great over at Topspin. Not too long after we reported on Topspin jumping onboard with Spotify-ten days later in fact—Digital Music News reported that the company had laid off half of its staff. The author of the story for Music News, an independent musician himself, found that utilizing the whole system was a pain.
The moral: Spotify might not be the only streaming service done with Topspin...don't expect it to come to Beat Music or to Apple Streaming whenever that gets off of the ground.
