This is a response to Will Zhang’s blog post
As free online streaming music sites becomes more common, major record labels suffers the continuing decreasing album sales. The major labels and well-known artists have fought against the sites either by removing their songs from the service or by suing the sites for violating their production rights. For instance, Taylor Swift recently removed all her music from the online streaming service, Spotify, in hopes of boosting up the actual album sales. However, at the same time the free access to music these sites has expanded customer segments for the music industry, including people who do not find enough incentive to purchase music and people who only listen to hot 100 Billboard songs. As a music lover, I appreciate the benefits of the online music streaming services, but I also have mixed feelings about the potential harms it brought to album sales , as this may cause numerous musicians and artists to stop producing music. Below is the pros and cons chart of the influence that the online streaming music service has brought to the music industry.
Pros:
- Expanding customer segments by attracting potential customers who don’t have enough incentive to purchase albums or online music.
- Free promotion to record labels and artists
- Loyalty to record labels (if the label is willing to collaborate with the sites, for instance, The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) includes streams of music tracks in its music chart)
- Decreasing the cost of manufacturing albums
Cons:
- Resulting in the decline of the recording industry
- Limiting the growth and development of indie. labels or small-scaled record labels
- Violating the song rights as some artists (such as Coldplay, Taylor Swift, and Beyoncé) may not intend to release their music on the streaming sites
Works Cited:
November 5th, 2014 , “ARIA to include streaming in charts” by Dominic White
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/aria-to-include-streaming-in-charts-20141105-11gzwn.html