If Spotify’s premise is that they need the majors to launch – if that is the hurdle they have set for themselves – then they will never launch.  When Amazon went to a no-DRM service the majors initially said no, but Amazon said "fine, we will launch with all independents if that’s what it takes" and they were willing (and able) to go do all the terribly tedious work it takes to line up 200 independent labels. My view is that once the majors saw that Amazon was in fact going to launch and promote independents, they had to and did get on board.

Yes I know the majors wanted an alternative to ITunes and that was a factor with Amazon but do not underestimate the competitive factor. They literally cannot afford to have a bunch of independents taking share.

It’s like the WCFL story in the Tommy James book. You have to force them to either go on it or miss the bus.