"It has more than 6 million users, roughly half in the UK, and the more than 6.5 million tracks are creating over a billion streams a month. When he announced plans to sever the broadband connections of pirates, Lord Mandelson mentioned Spotify as an example of the commercial alternatives to piracy. "In the context of government there is no doubt that Spotify does provide the labels with the chance to say 'here's the carrot, now give us a stick please'," said one music industry insider. But Spotify's PR man dismissed this as "That's one heck of a conspiracy theory! We've come a long way in a short period but we know we're far from perfect. That's what drives us."

"Rob Wells, head of digital at Universal Music Group International and the man who negotiated the Spotify deal on behalf of the label, denies the industry is using Spotify as a Trojan horse. "We don't do these deals because of government pressure," he said. "We do these deals because we are strategically excited about selling more music to more people. It's as simple as that and the side effect of that is it's great the government looks at these deals and says Universal is doing something."

The Guardian