A new Spotify initiative makes the big record labels nervous

Spotify is offering artists two advantages: A bigger financial cut and ownership of their recordings

For decades, the path to stardom in the music industry has usually gone through a major record company.

Almost every artist today who reaches the top of the charts — whether Kanye or Adele, Beyoncé or Drake — has gotten there with help from one of the three conglomerates that control around 80 per cent of the business: Universal, Sony and Warner.

Now Spotify is experimenting with another approach, one that is making those labels nervous.

Over the last year, the 12-year-old company has quietly struck direct licensing deals with a small number of independent artists. The deals give those artists a way