Just a few days ago, Helen was writing about Paul McCartney's new album, ‘Kisses On The Bottom’, being streamed on iTunes and Apple TV, and on Wednesday, Digital Music news announced that the ex-Beatles was pulling out his solo and Wings albums from ‘all streaming services’.
It was later clarified that removals on Spotify had already happened as soon as 2010, but soon other streaming services, like Rhapsody, will see the same withdrawal.
Just after reading this, I did a research on Spotify and effectively got only a fewMcCartney songs (because licensed through various compilations) and nothing at all fromWings. The takedown was issued by Universal Music Group, on behalf of ConcordRecords, which currently distributes his back catalogue.
McCartney follows Coldplay, The Black Keys, Tom Waits and Adele, artists who recently removed their last albums from streaming services. Don’t worry, you can still download McCartney's albums through iTunes or Amazon, but the free listening is over!
Let’s see, McCartney is a multi-millionaire, but he still cares about how much he receives per song? That’s just his own right, but I wonder how long people will resist streaming services. If, as it seems, it is the way music will be served to the public in a near future, what’s the point to resist to it?
Plus many people are saying that streaming services are the only way to avoid piracy, think about it, it is so easy to have access to free new music with the Pirate Bay!
I have no solution for musicians, they are going to be robbed one way or another, but we can’t go backwards and I feel bad for them.