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# Sean Parker: “There’s Blood In The Water For Labels” Over Spotify Royalty Payments
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/sean-parker-theres-blood-in-the-water-for-labels-over-spotify-royalty-payments/
- Published: 2012-03-15T10:50:10.000Z
- Updated: 2012-03-15T10:50:10.000Z
- Description: The size of Spotify payments to artists has led to an ongoing and often contentious debate. But Napster co-founder and Spotify investor Sean Parker sees it more as a problem. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/03/sean-parker-theres-blood-in-the-water-for-labels-over-spotify-royal
- Author: Bruce Houghton
- Tags: Streaming, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 10:55

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The size of Spotify payments to artists has led to an ongoing and often contentious debate. But Napster co-founder and Spotify investor Sean Parker sees it more as a problem between artists and labels, some of whom own a stake in the music streamer. "There's blood in the water for labels," Parker [said at SXSW.](http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/sean-parker-and-shawn-fanning-on-spotify-1006462352.story?ref=hypebot.com)

  
"Spotify has to remain neutral; the biggest contribution we can make is transparency," stated Parker in Austin.

At Napster "we only thought about the pure business elements, how it could benefit the consumer… we didn't understand what all this meant to the record executives," added his Napster co-founder Sean Fanning.