It's not that the music industry is dead, or even dying. It's that the record industry is.<p>For a long time, the record industry has been the epicenter of the music industry, the point from which everything else originates.<p>Spotify is succeeding because they understand that consumers don't really care about <i>owning</i> music — what's really important is spontaneous access to it.<p>With or without Spotify, the music industry needs to realize and come to terms with the fact that physical records are increasingly becoming irrelevant and adopt their business models accordingly. Spotify is merely making this more obvious than before.<p>The music business can flourish, as long as they adapt to the new circumstances instead of longing for the ridiculous successes of CDs in the nineties. CDs were perfect for that time, but they aren't for today.<p>The author is probably correct that Mariah Carey like contracts are probably not coming back, but instead the industry has an opportunity to let a thousand flowers bloom; recording and distribution costs has lowered to almost zero.<p>As with other media, the <i>people</i> are now in control of the message. The music industry should realize this and let great music crystalize itself through demand, instead of trying to control which song will be big right now.<p>I think the author is wrong about a Spotify for movies, however. People often think that what is true for music is also true for film, but that is certainly not always the case.