Just this past week the largest music store in the world closed its doors for the last time. This is not very surprising, not just because of the general decline of physical media for the last decade and a half, but also because the store was owned by HMV who have been closing stores all around the UK as of late.
It’s almost poetic that the largest music store is closing right before the launch of yet another high profile streaming service. Beats, an audio company famous for their line of headphones, is launching their streaming service later this Month. The service is set to challenge spotify’s dominance in both the international and the domestic market in the US and the UK, just like Apple, Google, and many other services before it.
At first glance it Beats’ decision to launch a new streaming service may seem puzzling. Afterall, they are only a headphones company and aren’t as integrated into our devices as much as Google or Apple. However, once it is recognised that Beats is probably the fastest growing brand in the music industry, along with the fact that they are partnering with mobile service providers, the decision to launch a streaming service actually seems to make a lot of sense.
On another note, I found some of the details of the service to be especially interesting. First of all, the service does not come with an ad supported free version at all. I understand that neither does Google or Apple’s, but they have a music store which makes it easier for the consumer to ease into the service and gain familiarity with the brand (plus Google allows for a trial period). Moreover, the service allows for the consumers to subscribe to a family plan, which allows up to five users to use the streaming service, for only $15 a month. This seems like it would be very appealing to the consumer, but I wonder what this would mean for royalty payments: do artists receive the same payment for a song played from a consumer on a family plan than on a regular plan (which costs $10)?
Sources:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f0f467a0-7af8-11e3-87a7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2qEZj4RNk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10566656/Worlds-biggest-music-store-to-close.html
