If his partners were smart enough, it's all in the contract. Fucking lawyers need to be good for something or all drowned like cats.
Dude, do you really think this is the first time some artist has pulled their catalog from a business? Before Spotify there was RADIO.
Heck, before Spotify there was MTV when it really was Music Television. I loved MTV but within a few years the bands realized they could make more money selling DVDs than letting MTV play their stuff. Sad.
whats different is that the sale of catalogs is a new development.
in the old days artists routinely signed away these rights (famously by the Beatles whose catalog wound up owned by Michael Jackson). so artists revolted and retained ownership. its changes in the music business (primarily streaming) that makes it more difficult for artists to keep up with to insure they are getting their cut so they sell the catalog for someone else to manage for a big up front payday.
