Well Of Course No One’s Paying For Streaming Music Services
THERE’S a bit of a logical disconnect in this idea that we’re all going to sign up for streaming music services like Pandora, Spotify and so on. The problem being that the more free services there are competing for our custom then the fewer of us are going to bother to pay for it. This is indeed how it normally works you know, more suppliers thus lower prices to consumers:
Yet even as they have grown, streaming companies have encountered a stubborn problem: Music lovers will consume large amounts of music as long as it is free, but getting them to pay a monthly subscription has proved much more difficult.
It’s not “yet” it is “because”.
With several major players about to enter the market in the next few months, the competition in streaming music is about to intensify.
Beats Music, a subscription service from the makers of Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, will arrive in January, accompanied by an aggressive marketing campaign. YouTube and Deezer, a French company, are also expected to enter the American market with subscription plans. They join an already crowded streaming market that includes Rdio, Rhapsody, Google’s All Access, Xbox Music from Microsoft and Sony’s Music Unlimited.
Jeebus folks, it’s all pretty simple really. If there are ten or twenty companies offering us variations of free and cheap music then we’ll all be paying less for our music than if there were 2 or 3 such offerings.
This is just damn obvious. And as to the musicians who aren’t getting much money out of all of this, well, tough luck matey. The point and aim of the economy is to make the consumers better off, not the producers. So, if we get to have music but you don’t get to have money while we do, umm, who cares?
Photo: Informality reigns as music lovers lounge in New YorkÂs Central Park on July 26, 1966 as they listen to Leonard Bernstein conduct the New York Philharmonic. The concert was one of 12 free outdoor performances sponsored by the city of New York. Skyscrapers jut into the Horizon in background.
Posted: 16th, December 2013 | In: Money, Music, Technology, The Consumer Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
