La Roux's debut album has been removed from the free version of Spotify. At the moment, if you try and play the eponymous album you are greeted by a message stating that it is now a 'premium exclusive'. Some albums have been granted such exclusivity previously, but all have been new releases, whereas La Roux was released last June.

A Spotify spokesperson told the preposterously named blog Music Ally that the album was removed at the behest of Polydor, La Roux's record label.

"The rights holders have asked that we remove La Roux's album from the free service as of this week, so it's currently only available to subscribers," they said. "We look forward to adding La Roux back for all of our users in the near future."

Similarly, you are now only able to access preview clips for the album on music streaming site We7. Now, in itself, this may not seem huge news to the individual. After all, in the course of trying to find out who their record label was, I noticed that the album in question is available from Amazon for under four quid (use that affiliate link, kids). But it does raise the question of whether the majors have now decided that this (free streaming) is not to be the business model that allows them to profit fully from the digital distribution of music. To not want people to have free access to an album that has been out for half a year, and for which the promotional campaign has finished (La Roux are soon to begin a follow up), is strange, though until others follow it probably has to be looked at in isolation. But then that wouldn't make it much of a story, so we'll continue along the lines that this may be another seismic moment in the industry's decade long battle to work out how the fuck to make money from the internet.