The Real Problem with Streaming

Streaming is a damn fine way for a fan to engage in music. Where else can you access 35 million songs on demand for free? And for just $10 a month, it’s almost like you own all that music yourself.

But while streaming is the future of music distribution, it’s been beset by–well, let’s be generous and call them growing pains. Music Industry Blog takes a closer look at the problem with streaming.

Much of the debate around the sustainability of streaming has understandably focused on artist and songwriter income and transparency.  It is a debate that I have contributed to frequently.  But the more fundamental structural issues are whether the business models are commercially sustainable and if they are, what the implications are.  Music consumption is inarguably moving towards access based models so the question is not whether streaming should happen or not, but how to make it work as well as it possibly can for all parties.

As unfair as it might seem, the baseline issues regarding creator income could go unchanged without streaming business models falling apart.  But, as I will explain, if broader commercial sustainability issues are not fixed then many streaming businesses will collapse leaving just a couple of companies standing.  And that scenario would almost certainly be worse for creators than the current one.

Keep reading. This is important.