It's often hailed as a model for the future of digital music, but the reality is that many smaller labels can't survive on streaming"Swedish music sales up again thanks to Spotify", screamed last week's headlines. Though CD sales in Sweden are down 30% and digital downloads are down 22.6% "this has been solidly offset by the rise in streaming" they continued. So how come we're not hearing whoops of joy screamed from the rooftops from Sweden's music creators – or its indie labels?In the previous Plugged In we explained that many major-label artists are unhappy about streaming rates due to the way record deals are structured, but what about smaller labels?When Swedish independent artist/producer/songwriter and label owner David Elfström Lilja checked his admin page on Phonofile, his distributor, the other day to find out how much he had made from his latest single Worlds Collide in its first few weeks of release, his heart sank. For 18,035 streams he had received 8.70 SEK (£0.80). Mean...
