In the UK and across Europe, the use of the paid streaming services has become increasingly popular. They have emerged as a new front that is vehemently coming with sites that illegally provide music files. From the study, it has been established that while the music piracy sites are active in UK and the rest of continental Europe, the paid music services continue to make huge impacts in the way the audience received services in the modern day. In a sample size of 81 music product consumers, it was established that all of them are familiar with the paid music streaming series. Some of the popular players in this dimension include Tidal, iMusic and Pandora among others. It is apparent that most of the respondents were from Europe and as such the basis of the current dissertation would greatly put emphasis on the European music sales as enabled by the present day internet infrastructure.
Another important aspect that emerged in the research is that zero percent of the respondents have accessed the music files in the conventional hardcopy means such as the Vinyls and the Compact discs. That implies on assertion in the European music purchasing dimension; the shift to digital access of music is great. Borrowing from Bielas (2013) the fall in the hardcopy music labels is a real phenomenon not only in the European context but also in other regions of the world. As the demand in the music products prompts the shifts towards use of the internet is observable. Indeed the music marketers in the modern day are constantly feeling the effects of such demand shits and it is evident that they have become adaptive in their practices. Adaptation is being inclined to newer forums such as online purchasing that brings along new forms of opportunities but also threats such as piracy problem. A similar view is shared by Koh, Murthi and Raghunathan (2010) who believe that album physical sales are fast becoming an aspect of the past. The online music sales and piracy appears as the suitable candidate in the substitution of the physical sales.
It is essential to evaluate what has prompted the shifts in such practices. The music industry has become dynamic and an intense user of the technical advancements in the modern day. As the technologies witness explosive use today, it has become a new trend that the people get to purchase and consume the music products via the World Wide Web. From records the evolution wen to tapes, CD and MP3 and now there is music streaming (Smith, 2016) It comes with little surprise that the respondents unanimously agree that they no longer rely on the physical delivery of music files like in music shops as it was done before. The research findings could help the researcher predict the future of the music consumption especially in the European context. One aspect is prevalent; there would no more sales in the physical music files and labels. The availability of the online music giants such as iTunes Tidal, YouTube, Pandora as well as Pirate Bay continue to influence the market towards the reliance on the internet infrastructure in the service delivery. Nevertheless, as pointed out by Koh, Murthi and Raghunathan (2010), some of the aforementioned corporates operate within the legal frameworks while others don’t. Then, that categorization has a lot to do with completion and the nature of online music consumption in the postmodern society.
When one mentioned of the paid music services, the narrative rarely misses the word Tidal. Tidal is one of the most sought after subscription-based service that offers music streaming on a subscription rate. Tidal is one of the global online music giants that are in a constant rush to sign artists so that it offers paid services to increasingly large consumer base. According to Tidal (2016), the company already provides having high performance and world rated music superstars such as Beyoncé, Prince, Jay Z, Jack White, Drake as well as Kanye West among others. These artists release songs and their songs are exclusively marketed on platforms such as Tidal. Primarily, a Tidal subscription exists in terms of $9.99 or $19.99 every month (Tidal, 2016). The differences in pricing arise due to the extent of access of the music on the site. For instance, there is a $19.99 tier where there is an added advantage where the consumers access high fidely sound. While paid streaming services are revolutionary and give a legal approach to consuming music files through online platform, they come with repercussions to the users.
Concerning the dark side, when an artist say Beyoncé signs a deal with a streaming service such as Tidal, her music are exclusively marketed and sold by Tidal. It means that rival services such as iTunes or Pandora missed the opportunity to showcase the artist’s music. This artist-company agreement implies that the Tidal subscribers are the only ones, legally of course, to stream the artist’s music. In other words, the iTunes subscribers are unable to access the artist’s music on the platform. The existing agreements and legislative framework does not allow for any kind of hopping with regard to music purchases. According to McIntyre (2015), the music exclusives are controversial enough to hurt the subscribers a good section of who appreciate diversity in their purchasing practices. Several high ranking artists such as Rihanna (On Tidal) as well as Taylor Swift (On Spotify) have faced challenges in driving up sale revenues citing similar reasons (Linshi, 2014: McIntyre, 2015). In fact for the case of Taylor Swift, she chose to pull down her music from Spotify in the fall of 2014(Linshi, 2014).
As it has been explained in the case above, it is evident that the modern day artists are having challenges in the use of paid streaming sites due to the existing frameworks in the online music service provision. Nevertheless, the current research would not entirely dwell on the challenges accruing on the artists’ community. It centers on investigating the piracy problem which is more oriented on the consumer side. Analysts and experts in music research point to more possible negative implication in the continued usage of paid streaming services. Online pay music series such as Tidal, Apple, iHeart Radio, AAPL, Spotify, Google Play Music as well as Pandora among others have entered in a competitive era to seal deals with hip-hop moguls, pop stars and RnB icons among others with the aim of increasing their base of exclusives (McIntyre, 2015). Reports continue to caution that streaming service activities could harm the future of music consumption industry. On the other hand, many of the consumers weigh on the $10 subscription on paid streaming services against finding suitable and comprehensive services that suit their needs. For instance, a large section has considered choosing the streaming services that have majority of the artists that they prefer. Nevertheless, human needs and preferences are ever on a shifting mode and there are risks on vacating loyalty and considering other means to access the services (Mitroff and Moskovciak, 2016). Such means could include piracy that is already on an increasing scale.
Additionally, from the conducted research, it is evident that about a third of them participate in the pay music streaming services. Such an outcome is within the scope of the usage of such platforms. Borrowing from Perez (2016), the music streams by the end of 2015 had doubled to about 317 billion globally as compared to a year earlier in 2014.album sales declined by sic percent while the worldwide statistics show that 164.5 billion songs were streamed in 2015 (Perez, 2016). As the digital sales increase, streaming is likely to go up in short and medium term analysis of the future. Indeed the numbers are growing. Currently, Last.fm has 40 million users, iHeart Radio 85 million users, Baudi 150 million, Apple Music 54.5 million, 8tracks 17 million, Pandora, 79.4 million, Spotify 100 million (30 million of which a paid subscribers) and Tidal 4.2 million among others (Smith, 2016) . While the numbers look impressive, it is crucial to look at the piracy statistics. Following the latest statistics by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the global illegal piracy websites increased by about 16.5 percent by 2015’s second quarter (IFPI, 2016). While the global music revenues registered 3.2 percent growth outpacing physical means for the first time in history, illegal piracy grew by one-fifth (Ingham, 2016). In the US alone, more than 213 million visitors were registered in 2015 (Ingham, 2016).