Is Streaming Music Digitally Hurting Or Helping The Music Industry?

Artists, Songwriters, and Labels all had a great fear in online streaming of music. The RIAA already deal with piracy of music on the Internet, which is the consumption of music on the Internet without legal rights or payment. Now with online radio/libraries such as Pandora, Spotify and Deezer, people don’t have to steal music anymore, but rather just look the song up and listen to it, even on demand. Just like the old threat of YouTube, users are allowed access to some of the biggest libraries at no cost. Even though obtaining revenue from online streaming can seem smaller than obtaining the revenue from buying songs, it can actually benefit the industry more than expected.

The biggest fear was that people would not buy the music if they could access the music for free online. Why would someone pay for music when he or she doesn’t have to pay? What was a fear to begin with turned out to be a silver lining in the digital music movement. With each music video played on YouTube and each song played on Spotify or any other online radio, royalties are paid. Something like Spotify, a loophole to piracy, turned out to be one of the biggest sources of revenue for labels.

Soon, iTunes will fall into the game with their release of iTunes Radio upon their release of iOS 7 this fall. This allows people to create a radio station just like Pandora with the same algorithmic learning. The only difference is the direct connection with the number one digital music store, iTunes Store. Each song that plays lasts for the whole duration of the song and allows the listener to purchase the song from the store. Each song that plays and each advertisement that plays will generate revenue. In addition, listeners will have a chance to discover new songs and are given the options to download the music directly to their phone, which adds more revenue. If they thought that was all, apps like Spotify and Pandora allow for ad free subscriptions for a small monthly fee.

Piracy may have scared the Music Industry away from digital music in the beginning, but now piracy has been turned into somewhat of a business. Everything is being paid for, but consumers do not have to buy anything. Everything is free, unless the consumer decides otherwise. It seems as if streaming music digitally is actually helping the Music Industry. What do you think? Is streaming hurting or helping?