October 7, 2016

Hey Biz Talkers! As we travel through the last quarter of 2016, we are seeing streaming take the music business to new heights. It seems that almost daily we are seeing new and creative ways for music to be presented to and consumed to the music community. Streaming has overtaken digital downloading as the preferred way for consumers to receive music. The release of Frank Ocean’s video album “Endless” is a groundbreaking example of the innovative ways that record labels and artists are utilizing to make music available to eager listeners.

The amount of streaming is growing exponentially. In fact, it is likely that audio streams will reach the 50 billion mark by the end of this year. Great Britain saw weekly streaming hit the 1 billion mark in July of 2015; and it seems certain that the U.S. will see this number in the very near future. The incredible rise in streaming has also created a new relationship between streaming and older music formats like vinyl and CD’s that are now enjoying new life when they were once thought to be heading for extinction. Everything old is now new again!

Of course, such revolutionary growth always creates challenges for the music industry to conquer. In my opinion, the greatest challenges to be met are 1. Finding ways to protect music on the web since there are still many avenues and methods to obtain music free of charge and 2. negotiating ways to fairly compensate the artists that create the music in a present environment where record labels routinely receive 70% of the overall revenues for streaming while the artists are receiving fractions of pennies on the dollar in streaming royalties. I feel that the music industry is on the verge of even greater growth, particularly in the area of streaming technology. I can’t wait to see what 2017 brings. Strap on your seatbelts everybody; it’s gonna be a wild ride! Till next time, Peace and Blessings!!!