The music
industry’s latest solution to internet piracy has been streaming. Many argue
that it is no solution at all because even though the listener doesn’t get to
“keep” the music, mobile technology allows them to listen to it pretty much
whenever they want. That level of access, coupled with the fact that the way
artists are compensated is vague at best, negates any difference between
streaming music and stealing it.
The key to
making streaming an adequate solution is for the services to charge more so
that they can fairly compensate the artists. It may also makes sense to start
charging a small amount per-play after a certain number of plays for a
particular song/album. Most users will put up with this because of the vast
amount of material the service gives them access to. The worst-case scenario is
that people go back to buying albums, which the streaming service can cash-in
by offering the digital albums for sale. The best-case scenario is that the artist
(and the service) get income from the plays and album sales.
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