Hey Kevin,

While I absolutely respect Josh's perspective, I have found that it absolutely does have an impact. It doesn't kill sales altogether, but it hurts them. I have seen sales fall off when an album goes up to Spotify, and then pick back up once removed. However, it does seem to happen more with certain demographics. The younger the audience, the more it seems to hurt. In the case of the Empty Pockets, they do a lot of their lead generation through a free physical album, which has a very high perceived value compared to a digital download. So I suspect that is why it doesn't impact them.

To my knowledge Elm Treason does not have their current album listed on Spotify. But it's possible they have done something I am not aware of. But I was not able to find it.

Also keep in mind, DTFI does not manage anyone. We are simply a marketing agency that creates and manages MMM style funnels. Artists differ in terms of what they need and want. It's important to remember that the MMM framework is very flexible. Fundamentally, you are just driving traffic, building an audience, then monetizing your relationship with that audience. It does not matter if you do this with free downloads, free albums, or whether your music is on Spotify or not. All that matters is that your subscriber value is greater than your subscriber acquisition costs, and there are many ways you can slide that scale.