Partner Article

Streaming Music Now an Industry Norm

For years the music industry struggled to get to grips with a new reality: the Internet. First, the industry fought the Internet, attempting to prevent it from becoming a new medium by which music is shared, brought and sold. However, it turned out to be an unstoppable force and the music industries strategy of denial was unsuccessful.

File sharing sites like Napster provided music for free, and with no legal alternative available, consumers flocked to Napster and other similar sites to get the music they wanted. After years of struggle and millions spent of legal battles the music industry finally conceded that the Internet was here to stay and began to figure out how to commodify the market.

Apple music became the first major success. Though the iTunes store Apple provided an easy to access market place where consumers could buy digital music legally. Other sites soon followed suit and online music sales surged. By 2013 IFPI reported that 46% of music industry revenue was generated through digital channels.

Now, with digital music sales a conquered frontier for the industry, a new trend is emerging: streaming music. Rather than purchase songs individually, users are now signing up to streaming sites like Spotify where they can listen to all their favourite songs and pay a monthly subscription fee.

Online music magazine Rock My World recently reported that music streaming is now a billion dollar a year business, generating more than one billion in the first half of 2014 in the U.S. alone. For everyone working in the industry this should come as welcome news. The Internet is no longer to be feared, it is an opportunity. A market place that just keeps growing!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kees Thorpe .