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LinkedIn · Derrick McMichael II

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A federal judge just dismissed the Spotify class action tied to alleged mass-scale fraudulent streaming on Drake's catalog.

The headline is about Drake and Spotify. But the lesson for independent artists is bigger than both of them:

If your whole business depends on a platform protecting the value of your streams, you are already in a weak position.

That does not mean streaming is useless. Streaming is still discovery. It is still social proof. It is still part of the stack.

But it cannot be the whole stack.

The direct-to-consumer lesson is simple: artists cannot wait for platforms to decide when they are visible, eligible, or payable.

That is the move.

Use Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, and DSPs for reach. But build the part you control:

- email / SMS list
- owned audience data
- direct merch
- ticket demand
- fan community
- catalog strategy
- clean rights metadata
- offers that do not require an algorithm to approve you

The artists who win the next decade will not be the ones complaining the loudest about platform economics.

They will be the ones building enough leverage that platform economics are not the only economics they have.

Streaming is a channel. It is not the business.

Build the business around it.

#MusicBusiness #IndependentArtists #Streaming #ArtistDevelopment

Source article: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2026/06/22/drake-streaming-fraud-spotify-lawsuit/

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Post ID: 8defe089…Platform: LinkedInLast synced: 6/26/2026, 1:54:44 AM

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