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Music Streaming Sales Outstrip Digital Downloads For First Time (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes with this news, which might worry you if you'd like your music (or videos, or books) to be safely stored on your local PC, phone, or offline storage: Music streaming has surpassed digital downloads in terms of revenue, according to a report released by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Its 'News and Notes on 2015' review shows that music streaming in the U.S. brought in 34.3% of the overall revenue for the year – generating $2.4 billion out of a total $7 billion. If the numbers are accurate, streaming beat music downloads by 0.3%. While this growth is an encouraging result for those in the industry backing streaming services like Spotify and the new Apple Music, many remain unconvinced of its value. RIAA chairman and CEO Cary Sherman noted an 'alarming' disparity between the growth in the number of ad-supported streams, and the growth in revenues generated by these.
who cares, $10 a month i can listen to as many new releases or songs I haven't heard of as I want at any time that i want my music library peaked at 200 some CD's back in the day and most of them i would only listen to once a year. no value in buying music anymore for a huge collection
Music never belonged to the listener. the concept of "owning music" was farcical to begin with. The concept of having your own personal version of music was the creation of something called the music industry. Industrial music. I haven't purchased a CD in 15 years and haven't downloaded an mp3 in more than 10. I listen to the radio and take in live performances in the local pub.
Drop recordings - throw them away. Support the artist directly via live performance. Consumption of recorded music only support industrial music - and the corruption that controls it.
If only we could fall into a woman's arms without falling into her hands
Steaming music subscription instead of MP3s/CDs. Video streaming subscription instead of DVDs. Satellite radio instead of free radio. Cable TV instead of OTA. Pay-to-play games instead of one-time-cost games. Office365 instead of MS Office Suite. Hell, Windows 10 is the last Windows OS that you can "own" instead of "rent" (where "own" means a perpetual license and "rent" means time-limited license). This is all part of a wider trend to a Rentier Economy where ownership is a privilege only the very rich can afford and everyone else is on a treadmill of ever-increasing subscription fees.
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No, Mr. Sherman, what you are seeing is the competition that results from customers having more choice about formats and having a relatively large number of competing services trying to win customers driving prices down instead of a handful of companies essentially operating a price-fixing cartel and relying on customer lock-in. That you think this is a problem speaks volumes.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Who cares? We get access to the same stuff cheaper, and use the savings to access more stuff the rich used to have all to themselves. Your philosophical bullshit doesn't hold up much when food was 30% of the household income in 1950 and is 11% now, while cell phones went from $4,000 and $50/month plus 40 cents/minute in 1983 to $350 smart phone and $60 unlimited voice and data. By the way, that cell phone would be over $9,000 today, and you'd pay $550/month to talk for 2 hours per week.
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Amazingly enough, a lot of people still listen to music created in the 1990s, 80s, 70s and even 60s and 50s. Just because millennials only care about the flavor of the month doesn't mean everybody is as fickle as that.
Some of my most heavily played tracks are from CDs I bought 25 years ago. I can listen to that same music for the next 25 years without paying anyone another damn penny.
So tell me again how software 'good enough for a decade' is worth buying while music I might enjoy for 50 years isn't.