20 Defining Moments in Digital Music from 2014
This past year saw some interesting developments in the realm of digital music. Medium.com put together this list.
Taylor Swift is an artist enjoying a creative and commercial peak—2014’s most significant musician by all manner of metrics. And that’s why her very-public row with Spotify was such a big deal. The clash was clear: Swift didn’t want her albums available on free, on-demand streaming services, and Spotify doesn’t let anyone block their music from its free users. By taking down her catalogue, Swift brought this issue out into the open—it had been bubbling behind the scenes for a while—and her to-the-point explanationsparked the most passionate defense yet by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek of his company’s modus operandi. It was a debate that needed having, and it took Swift’s pulldown to blow it out into the open. But the nuances of this debate are vital: it was less about ‘artists versus streaming’ than it was about ‘free, ad-supported streaming versus paid subscription streaming.’ It’s a debate we’ll see more of in 2015. But Swift’s intervention was also a reminder that unlike previous music format transitions (vinyl to CD, or CD to downloads for example) the sales to streaming shift will see artists and songwriters taking a much more vocal role.
Continue reading here: https://medium.com/cuepoint/20-defining-moments-in-digital-music-2014-de7a0229e7c2?curator=MediaREDEF
