Spotify lives out its vision of building a 'new music economy'

Singapore

THE music industry is no stranger to disruption. Vinyl records, cassette tapes and compact discs were once the rage until piracy - through digital file-sharing platforms like Napster - appeared in the late 1990s and ate away at physical sales.

Then Apple's iTunes came to the rescue with legitimate, payable song downloads, but it inadvertently dampened the appeal of full albums, since consumers could buy the songs they liked individually.