These stories make for good fodder in that they highlight a perceived inequity with respect to an artist’s work being devalued. They have all the right elements: there’s the David and Goliath trope; the not-so-subtle dystopian inference that our society is going to hell because it’s over-valuing corporate greed to the detriment of artistry; and the fact that, because it’s music – something that plays some sort of role (however large or small) in most peoples’ lives, we’re all vaguely complicit in these inequities.

As is so often the case with stories that seem to suck just about everyone into their vortex, they often are full of sound and fury, but signify nothing. Such is the case with the hubbub around payments (or lack thereof) from Spotify, et al. to artists.