Get Ready For a Streaming Music Die-Off

walterbyrd writes "Streaming services are ailing. Pandora, the giant of its class and the survivor at 13 years old, is waging an ugly war to pay artists and labels less in order to stay afloat. Spotify, in spite of 6 million paid users and 18 million subscribers who humor some ads in their stream, has yet to turn a profit. Rhapsody axed 15% of its workforce right as Apple's iTunes Radio hit the scene. On-demand competitor Rdio just opted for layoffs too, in order to move into a 'scalable business model.' Did no one wonder about that business-model bit in the beginning? Meanwhile, Turntable.fm, a comparatively tiny competitor with what should have been viral DNA, just pulled the plug on its virtual jam sessions this week—and it just might be the canary in the coal mine."

Comments

Re:It's a doomed race against time

[somersault]

You know what is one of the traits I like least in a person? When they assume that it's everyone else who is ignorant, rather than check their facts.

Yes, one meaning of converse - apparently the only one you know - is to take part in a conversation. However, there is another meaning which has a similar meaning to inverse and obverse.

converse
adj
(prenominal) reversed; opposite; contrary
n
something that is opposite or contrary
a categorical proposition obtained from another by the transposition of subject and predicate, as no bad man is bald from no bald man is bad
Etymology: 16th Century: from Latin conversus turned around; see

So basically, your post is laden with iron. Very irony in fact. Such disdain. Wow.

Gershwin's music is under perpetual copyright

[tepples]

If the cited trend in this article is true, perhaps young listeners might learn of the majesty of Beethoven, the emotion of Tchaikovsky, the joy of Gershwin.

Ludwig van Beethoven and Piotr Tchaikovsky yes, George Gershwin no. Along with The Walt Disney Company, Gershwin's estate was one of the biggest lobbying forces behind the Copyright Term Extension of 1998, the statute that initiated what some believe to be Congress's policy of "perpetual copyright on the installment plan". Gershwin's piece Rhapsody in Blue, first published in 1924, is perhaps the oldest famous piece of instrumental music still under copyright in the United States.