Since the emergence of downloading as an alternative to fans consuming music through traditional methods, certain people within the music industry have become twitchy. One of the most notable examples from this time is the legal debate between Metallica and Napster. The root of the dispute was that Metallica (particularly the delightful Lars Ulrich) were losing out on revenue when their music was being illegally downloaded.

The dispute led to a huge crack down on illegal downloading and made the whole world glaringly aware of the deep emotional pain that artists suffer as a result of their music being illegally downloaded. On a serious note, it’s undeniable that the culture of downloading music for free was damaging the future of the music industry by stunting funding.

Fast forward to the present day and a new debate is forming in the world of music. Many artists have recently and very publically spoken out against making their music available on music streaming service Spotify, the most recent of which being Björk.

Her latest album Vulnicura was given a surprise release January but she decided not to make it available on Spotify, citing the fact that it “doesn’t feel right” as the reason for the decision. She went into it further, saying: "I would like to say there's some master plan going on [with the album release], but there isn't. But a few months ago I emailed my manager and said, 'Guess what? This streaming thing just does not feel right. I don't know why, but it just seems insane'.

"To work on something for two or three years and then just, oh, here it is for free. It's not about the money; it's about respect, you know? Respect for the craft and the amount of work you put into it.”

Taylor Swift recently cited similar reasons, criticising the fact that you didn’t necessarily have to pay to access her music and that didn’t sit well with her. She said: "With Beats Music and Rhapsody you have to pay for a premium package in order to access my albums. And that places a perception of value on what I've created. On Spotify, they don't have any settings, or any kind of qualifications for who gets what music. I think that people should feel that there is a value to what musicians have created, and that's that."

It’s easy to see where both artists are coming from. As a musician, you spend time nurturing and cultivating you art before putting it out into the public domain. Through Spotify, you can essentially listen to music for free if you don’t decide to go premium and this is inevitably going to have an impact on the number of albums an artist sells.

You have to wonder if, even though they try to play it down, greed is part of the reason some artists don’t want their music on Spotify. They still get money for having their music on the site but at the end of the day, album sales are what really matters to these people and although they are receiving monetary compensation, they are not receiving the prestige that comes with having a huge selling album.