Could Spotify and the record industry being headed for a standoff?

Over the course of the year, Spotify has discreetly started an interesting experiment: it’s struck direct licensing deals with some independent artists, bypassing the record companies. These license agreements with artists who do not operate through a record company are not exclusive and also allow them to distribute their music through other platforms such as Amazon or Apple Music, to receive a much larger amount of rights generated by the reproductions, and in addition to maintain all property rights over their music.