Back in the day, it was cool to download music illegally via Napster, Xolox, Kazaa, and Limewire. As a result, 95% of the music downloaded on the internet is illegal (daily infographic). However only 10% of those downloads are actually hurting the music industry. Nevertheless, digitally formatted music is the primary way in which people obtain and listen to their favorite songs.
In recent years, an upsurge in the popularity of music streaming occurred. Somewhere along the line, paying for mp3′s did not seem to be enough. Why pay ten dollars a month for a single new album when you can pay ten dollars a month for access to millions of songs? This realization sparked a revolution of internet music providers. Today, music streaming saturates the music industry. Many companies such as Grooveshark, Spotify, MOG, Pandora, Rdio, and Google Music Beta offer various music streaming services that present users with over fifteen million song choices. And while some of these websites limit music streaming to internet applications, many offer streaming capabilities to user desktops and mobile devices.
It is evident that music streaming continues to gain momentum because billboard.com, the primary provider of music chart rankings, now factors online music streaming into the top hit charts. So while many artists such as Skrillex are not popular on the radio, they are some of the most popular artists in the world due to music streaming and other web-based music sources (USA Today). Therefore, we must keep a close eye on the music streaming industry because it may become the predominant source of music and eventually even put mp3s to rest.
In the coming weeks, we will take a closer look at various music streaming services in order to better understand how the music industry is developing.
~Miles
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2 Comments
It does seem that streaming music has become one of the most popular ways to enjoy music. Though it has never really appealed to me. I have housemates and friends who frequently stream music (usually via Spotify) and they seem to be more than satisfied with the service they are using. I have often come across artists that are new to me and I end up listening to more of their music. Without streaming I would likely never have heard of them.
Even with all this considered I still like my MP3s. Though I might pay $10 for an album (which I rarely do, paying much less thanks to sites like eMusic or discounted CDs in stores) this is a better alternative than paying $10 every month. With artists that are new to me once I have heard them through streaming I have often gone to their website and purchased their music, thus supporting their music, whereas I could just keep listening for free or for a small cost of which little might go the artist.
Oh wow I remember using Kazaa and Limewire. It is really crazy how music streaming is still alive. I remember some people got caught downloading music and were fined for each song that they had downloaded. I wonder if they still catch people doing this.