Wednesday, August 26th, 2015

The Battle Between the Music Industry and Online Music Services

Jonathan Blum

Technological advances and the internet have transformed the way we consume music. It is becoming progressively easier to access the records and songs we want without having to buy the full album.

Streaming services such as Spotify and Deezer allow us to listen to millions of songs for free. However controversy has begun to surface among artists such as Taylor Swift, Tom York from Radio Head, Led Zepellin and American duo The Black Keys who accuse these services of not paying enough for publishing their albums and refuse to share their music on them.

Why? We have to remember that a few years ago the industry faced one of its biggest ever crises in which major musicians suffered million dollar losses due to the fall in physical CD sales. This has been attributed to factors such as streaming services, online videos such as YouTube and VEVO, as well as piracy.

For many others, however, these services have come to save the industry which seemed to be nose-diving. It is clear that as technology advances, users begin to seek out more accessible and convenient platforms. Smartphones now have all kinds of apps and it is possible to have everything on one device instead of having a telephone and an mp3 player. Big companies such as Apple understand this panorama so well that in addition to launching their own music service, they have decided the iPod will no longer be displayed alongside gadgets such as the iPad or iWatch, but as an accessory instead.

Taking all of these factors into account, the music industry and streaming services need to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, especially considering the advantages digital platforms can offer to help reach more audiences across more territories.