The European Parliament committee passed a unanimous vote this past Tuesday to allow service providers to obtain a new form of copyright license. This new kind of license will allow providers to legally stream music across EU borders, whereas previously a different license was required for each member state.
Streaming is often touted as the only real legal alternative to piracy. Unfortunately, it is also a valid alternative to purchasing music. As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, streaming music actually provides very little in terms of royalty payments to artists. An artist earns significantly more when their song is bought or played on the radio.
Now that I think of it, the rise in popularity of streaming as a format to listen to music may leave the artists in a worse position than they are now. It is probably possible (maybe even likely) that streaming services may dissuade consumers from purchasing music as opposed to persuading pirates from streaming.
