Streaming music has become a way of life for people all over the developed world. Physical copies of records have dissolved into 99 cent singles on iTunes and streaming content on services ranging from Pandora to Spotify. Instead of going to Best Buy to look at stereos, people are turning to the best laptops of 2011 in order to properly play their entire music collection, which usually consists of primarily pirated content.
It was recently reported by Wired that over 200 labels pulled their music from streaming services such as Spotify, Rdio, and Mog. Artists have been complaining that they are not seeing any revenue stream from their efforts and that the pay rate from streamed music is so miniscule that they shouldn’t even bother offering their music.
A contradictory report from Cnet claims that of all the labels that pulled their music from the free streaming services, very few of them will affect the bottom line and business plans of the internet services. Most of the pulled content is from British indie dance labels which do not make the same amount of money as the major labels that are still on the Spotify network. The fact of the matter is that there is still a lot of music for free via steam and the record companies are making a serious lack of profits.
Another nail in the coffin of the music industry will come with the continued advancement of cloud computing. Apple is about to unveil their iCloud music storage plan which will allow iTunes users to store up to 25,000 songs in their network and access them wherever there is access to the Internet for $24.99 a year.
Google will also be unveiling their new music service which will fit perfectly with the Android operating system. The Washington Post reports that their cloud service will allow users to store up to 20,000 for free.
These cloud services will harm the record industry further because of the rampant pirating of copyrighted material through torrent sites. There are no restrictions to the amount of material Google, Apple, or Spotify allows on their cloud networks, so pirated music can now be hosted through corporate servers with little way for artists to profit off of the fruits of their labor.
A common argument amongst pirates is that information should be free and that if musicians want to make money off of their music, they shouldn’t be in the industry in the first place. The artists should be placing the blame on labels who allowed third party tech experts to develop the software to profit off of their work while clinging to outdated business models.
