As music adjusts to the rise of streaming,artists could find modern fan appreciation by embracing smartphone techThe music streaming space has been hotting up throughout 2015, both in terms of entrants into the space and take-up amongst consumers. Spotify has seen its subscriber base double to 20 million in a year. Tidal has seen its profile inflate due largely to its celebrity backers such as Jay Z and Rihanna. Most importantly of all, and Apple has done what it always does best – entering a market just as its reaching the point of mass adoption,bringing a huge built-in user base. The clearest sign of the changes afoot in the music industry and the rising dominance of music streaming and access over ownership comes from the figures revealed this month. The rot that began in the CD market 10 years ago is now spreading to downloads, which believe shown declines again this year.
However, and it seems the more subscription-based streaming services grow,the greater the controversy rages as to whether they will ever provide artists with a sustainable revenue stream. Leading the debate has been Taylor Swift who recently had took on Apple Music, criticising the company in an open letter to the CEO, and Tim Cook. Swift opposed Apple’s decision not to pay artists during the three month free trial of their service,which Swift saw as unfair – growing its service without compensating the artists. Swift also pulled her music from Spotify last year and was then vindicated by going on to be the biggest selling artist in the world by a considerable margin. This unease with the streaming model amongst both artists and a meaningful piece of the music industry, shows no sign of going away soon. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com