back to article Streaming music works for us, say US and UK indie labels

Are legal music streaming services just Kim Dotcom on a diet, with a lawyer? The debate has raged amongst musicians for years now, and really ignited when Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery took issue with the “new music economy” two years ago. In what became known as the “Letter to Emily” storm last year, …

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  1. historymaker118

    Indie labels?!

    Surely that means they aren't independent any more then...

  2. MrXavia

    I am not a fan of streaming really, it requires a reliable connection, so there is not listening when your on the tube etc... I prefer to buy mp3s of artists I enjoy or I listen to the radio...

    1. David Hicks
      Stop

      Not really

      Set up playlist, hit "download to phone" and wait a bit. Now you have your spotify playlist stored locally.

      There are things to dislike about it, they don't have everything (their selection of British Goth bands from the 1990s is quite lacking... :), you don't own the stuff you've downloaded and it can disappear if they fall out with the artist. Plus clearly you lose access if you stop paying them.

      But I still quite like it.

    2. Bill the Sys Admin

      Most of them now offer a local sync of your play lists. Which is good feature. Just sync on your wifi before you leave then listen off your local storage. Good feature.

  3. g e
    Holmes

    But presumably

    We're all still despicable terrorist-funding 'thieves' by default, natch

  4. hitmouse

    It's a pity that most of the US and UK indie labels rarely put their music on other country's iTunes/Spotify stores, thereby denying an opportunity for most of the world to buy music that they enthusiastically market globally via social media etc.

    1. Paul Sanders
      WTF?

      This is completely untrue. I manage a lot of the back end delivery service for UK and US indie labels and almost all of them put their music on all the countries' iTunes and Spotify stores.

      1. hitmouse

        Forgive those of us who have lived in other European countries or places like Australia who cannot even see most of such artists listed on these services. On a few occasions I've contacted the artists directly and they've pulled the appropriate switches, but if you can only get through to a label then you're ignored.

  5. jake Silver badge

    I always have to point back to my buddy Janis's commentary.

    http://www.janisian.com/reading/internet.php

    Please do read the followup ... http://www.janisian.com/reading/fallout.php

    1. Professor Clifton Shallot

      Janis

      Yes, I think that's some of the best writing on the subject - although as it turns out the industry has been able to keep control (albeit with a shift in power to Apple, Google, etc) and maintain the price of downloads much higher than the 'reasonable' level she suggests so she represents something of a naive and idealistic position (not that I am castigating her for that).

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    News just in, music biz just like any other

    I mean, I do all the work but my boss takes the credit, and his boss in turn, up to the CEO and then to the shareholders. So why should the music business be any different?

    On the other hand, why don't all the musicians join up and form their own streaming/online sales platform? I can always go independent as a consultant...

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: News just in, music biz just like any other

      You must not know a lot of musicians. To get them to agree with each other on anything is like herding cats.

      It's why they are continually taken advantage of.

      The other reason is that musicians are a dime a dozen.

      I wish I had the answers for helping them, but their very mindset prevents any solutions from the start.

      1. Tom 13

        Re: herding cats.

        Even before you get to that point you have the problem that for most musicians, if they had any business sense to begin with, they wouldn't be musicians.

  7. andro

    The question is not "is streaming worth it?" its "whats in the contracts?". Like anything you can have good and bad business contracts, and if you are an artist, then hearing "streaming" and saying "yes" or "no" based on that alone is a huge mistake, as big as you can make anywhere contracts are involved. If anyones wants to stream your music for free, read the fine print even more closely.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Spotify’s CEO is the 10th richest man in the UK music industry

    Maybe he doesn't spend all of his profits on payola, hookers, private jets, cocaine and overseas sales conferences.

    1. daveeff
      Joke

      Re: Spotify’s CEO is the 10th richest man in the UK music industry

      >he doesn't spend all of his profits on payola, hookers, private jets, cocaine and overseas sales conferences.

      What's the point of being rich then?

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