New albums Century Media artists The Devastated and Caliban have made their way onto online streaming service Spotify. This comes as a huge surprise after Century Media's very public anti-Spotify stance. The label's major complaints are that the service has a very low per-song payout and that it can cannibalize physical album sales. Though the label has talked about the possibility of reintroducing their artists to Spotify in the form of samplers, and they have put up the singles "The Serpent" and "Nothing Left" from one of their new artists Rise to Remain (which boasts Bruce Dickinson's son on vocals), posting up these full albums seems out of character.
Neither album, in my opinion, is very good. Mediocre deathcore that offers nothing new that better bands haven't already done. The Devastated's debut Devils Messenger that came out two weeks ago has seen poor sales (only 470 units week one, we'll see what week two brought them tomorrow). It's possible that Century Media doesn't think that Caliban's new album We Are the Many, which came out today, will fare much better. They don't need to worry about Spotify cannibalizing physical album sales if there are no samples to cannibalize. Low pay-out is better than no pay-out.
The other possibility is that Spotify can help to promote the album a little more. If people listen to the albums on the service, it'll show up on their Facebook feed, which could lead to more people discovering the artist, which could lead to more sales. Putting up the singles from Rise to Remain seems to be on that line. Maybe this is just the label fulfilling their end of promotion for the bands.
I'm of the opinion that they're trying to cut their losses, but then again, I'm cynical.
If you care to listen to either album, you can do so here (The Devastated) and here (Caliban). I however, think that there are much better albums for you to listen to (like Christian Mistress or Eluveitie, both of whom have records out today).
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