K. Lewis

Music Industry Downfall: The Rise of Social Streaming

The numbers don't lie but I have don't see streaming staying atop the heap without a factor of mobility. iPods allowing you to take your music library with you is the killer feature that keeps it ahead of the streaming sites. I stream internet radio constantly while I'm at a computer but once I'm on the go it's iPod and nothing else. The best bet to meet the demand for any song anywhere still appears to be on the device that allows streaming on the go. Cell phones are the closest to that prize and Apples a major player there as well. As for 25 cents per song, that seems low to me. Especially if it's the only option. I like Nine Inch Nails approach of a tiered offering of more content and supplemental content at a higher price. 25 cents for a simple raw mp3 download and nothing else, perhaps. For guys like me who like to hold a book of liner notes and see who wrote and produced each track, $1 per song with additional info doesn't seem too much to ask.

The Music Biz: Something Important Is On The Horizon

Here's the truth of the matter. There will be new choices for music consumers at some point in the future and people will not stop creating new music as the current business model continues to break down. Original music will continue to be created and someone will figure out how to charge those willing to pay. Out of the shuffle in the coming years there will emerge a small set of choices that'll represent exactly what the market will bear. Any person who's every encountered a persistent sales pro has heard the term "well how much you got to spend?" Soon enough the music and movie businesses will learn how to ask that question and collect whatever happens to be the answer. They'll collect at the delivery channel, or the hardware device and they'll collect from whatever form we choose to consume be it single, album, streamed, leased, or "owned." AND there'll still be people stealing content.