If you are not streaming music yet you’re a bit of an idiot. There is so much free music that to pay for it is archaic. I suppose it’s noble, ” Three Cheers For You” but it’s also rather idiotic.
I do believe in supporting your scene. I do believe in throwing the struggling opening act a few bucks for gas money at a gig but if you think I am going to spend money on a national acts album- you’re out of your mind. There is no reason to do so. You have Pandora, Spotify, I Heart Radio(lame) but you have all of these option streaming endlessly- subscribe for ten dollars and you’re set for the month- everywhere.
The problem is no one is getting rich on this and there is no way to turn back now. Was it a self destructive move to make streaming so simple? Yeah maybe, but remember the sobbing Napster wars? HA take that we can get all of your stuff now over and over and over. In a highly mobile world we don’t need the tactile release. Even I, who adore the liner notes and physical album could care less now. If you’re not busting out the trendy vinyl (and ps that aint gonna last) you’re out of the game.
Pandora pays half its revenue to royalties, and Spotify pays 70 percent.
“We can’t put the genie back in the bottle – this is the way people want to listen to music,” Spotify COO Ken Parks told CNet. “The challenge is to get the entire planet on a path to eventually subscribe and pay something for music. The first task is to get them on the conveyor belt to paid consumption.”
To that end, MediaNet Digital is expected to launch 50 new streaming services next year – all niche marketed, with sub prices as low as $2.99 a month.
“You look at all of these services, they’re almost all exactly the same, targeting exact same consumers,” 7digital President Vickie Nauman told the WSJ. “You don’t have to be a genius to say, what sense does it make to try to do the same thing? We’re trying to filter companies by how they’re bringing audiences into the market that aren’t already on these.”
Let’s see Google is launching a streaming pay service, Dr Dre is too, as is YouTube…guys, you cant compete that hard with the exact same service. There is nothing you can do to make your stream more desirable unless it causes your computer to shove out pizza’s from the disc drive.
ITunes will live. Spotify and Pandora will live- but Google, you need to stick to g mail. There is nothing anyone can do but increase costs and then.. well, no then it just becomes a bidding war.
Simply said artists will never again earn money on their recorded music. So it’s licensing and endorsement all the way.