The Fold

The Spotify paradox: why hundreds of fans can beat millions of streams

Music supervisor Joel Gouveia joins Duncan Greive from Toronto to discuss a series of Substack posts he authored that have struck a chord in the music industry.

24 Mar 2026

The Fold

More about the episode

Joel Gouveia is a music supervisor, artist manager and booking agent, with a Substack. Earlier this year he wrote a series of posts, each more successful than the last, which drilled into the streaming music economy in a vivid and challenging way. He talked about bands with millions of streams that sold a dozen tickets, while others with comparatively tiny audiences could sell out tours. He looked some of the economic and cultural failings of music streaming and shone a bright light on them, basically – and those posts were the most popular pieces on the whole Substack network, showing just what a chord he struck. He joins Duncan Greive on The Fold from his office in Toronto to explain his thinking, and why he started speaking out.