Streaming Music Services Can Work–If It’s Done Right
With physical music sales continuing its long death spiral and with sales of digital downloads dropping even faster, the music industry is going to have to make its mind up about streaming. It’s the way we’re headed but there are still all kinds of issues.
- Clear and transparent compensation terms for artists.
- Licensing agreements that allow the streaming music services to turn a profit.
- Consumer education.
Streaming will work–if it’s done right. But what does that mean? This is from Hypebot:
Today, the music industry is at a crossroads. The Faustian deal that the music industry made with the late Steve Jobs — make every music track available for $1 on iTunes — isn’t working. Physical record sales continue to decline, as they have every year for nearly a decade. But now digital track sales are declining, too — iTunes music sales are down by more than 10 percent this year — and the recorded music industry is scrambling for a solution.
The hot question of the moment is whether streaming on-demand music services are the answer to arrest the recorded music industry’s decline, or whether the industry is about to enter another protracted downward spiral. The flash point for this has been Taylor Swift’s decision last week to remove all of her music from the free streaming service Spotify. Other artists have followed suit in recent days with their latest albums, including Jason Aldean, Justin Moore and Brantley Gilbert.
