Why Music Fans are Getting Screwed in the Streaming Wars
Feeling squeezed, confused and a little ripped off by what’s going on with the streaming music industry today. You’re not alone. Take a look at this article from Hypebot.
Guest post by Kurt Bauer of social playlist app Qus
We’ve all heard by now about Jay-Z pulling several of his albums from some music services and directing his fans to Tidal, the music service he bought not long ago. His motivation seems obvious, and both he as an artist, and Tidal, may benefit in the end. But he’s not the first artist to restrict digital access in various ways, for various reasons. This may be good for artists, and it may be good for some music services, but it’s a terrible experience for music fans.
In many ways, it’s like we’re back in the early days of digital music fighting over codecs. Music fans can’t go to a single streaming service and get access to every artist’s material – particular artists may be on this or that service, podcasts might be on SoundCloud, and videos from YouTube. That leaves them the option of creating multiple accounts with multiple apps on their devices. Then they have to remember which services have which songs, and they can’t create playlists with all their favorite tracks across those services. And forget about sharing music with friends that may have different music service subscriptions. C’mon, how is this a good experience for the listener?