[jamesear]

Millions just get on with it, without a fear. If one streaming site goes bust, they'll switch. If all streaming sites go bust, the world will be united in finding solutions. It'll be fine.

But fair enough to those that want to curate their own local collection.

Full disclosure: I rely solely on my local collection, but I also think the loss of streaming is not a worry people should have.

[autoexec]

People can switch streaming services all they like but increasingly music is going to disappear from every streaming service. Streaming services are beholden to the music industry and the music industry is heavily incentivized to let old things die off and to only offer a limited subset of what they could offer because they don't want their old stuff competing with their new stuff.

[rnd0]

Additionally, ISPs are going to be playing more of a policing roll so people who might turn to 'pirate' streaming sites are going to be finding access to those being increasingly limited until they are completely gone as well.

[autoexec]

I'm afraid you're right. Not the ISPs want that either, but that's where things are headed. With users losing more and more control over their own computers (DRM, "trusted" computing, etc) piracy may get increasingly more difficult with time anyway

[__m]

Do they get more money for new stuff?

[autoexec]

Sometimes, yes. If many people are spending their time listening to old bands that are no longer together or no longer tour it can impact their bottom line, but mostly they want to secure their role as gatekeepers of what people are able to listen to and what is popular.

They want their chosen new artists to be instantly (and hugely) successful, but it's harder for new artists to gain an audience when people's limited time/attention is being spent elsewhere. They also want immediate feedback on artists and sales. They like to use metrics like "X copies sold/downloaded/streamed in the first days/weeks/months post-release" which don't work out too well when people take their sweet time getting around to consuming the newest thing. They liked being able to drop or stop investing in artists asap when their newest album or song doesn't perform well. Having people listening to what they put out quickly increases the value of the money they spend on promotion of the new material. It allows them to better track/control the conversation surrounding their new material on social media too.

What they really miss is radio. The old songs didn't stick around long, it was a constant stream of the new, and it was where most people got their music so everybody was exposed to the same stuff roughly at the same time. They'd love nothing more than to get back to having that kind of influence on our culture, but for now they'll take what they can get.

[jwnin]

Largely agree with you, but also wonder if this is something that will change with time. 30 years from now, maybe the big streamers start to drop license deals for older music that few listen to.