People don't think Jay Z's Tidal Streaming Service will survive.

that's still a potential $84/year per user to be distributed, and still more than average gross spend on purchasing music.

That's a good point, but it's still apples to oranges. There are more than 20,000,000 songs in Spotify. You can still choose to buy your music piecemeal (or pirate), but for access to that much music, comparing it to what the average consumer used to spend is an extremely unfair comparison. They're now paying for access to a universe of music. Using your previous math, the average consumer paid $60/yr for, what, about about 5 albums? Roughly 60 songs, or a dollar a song? Paying $120/yr for 20,000,000 songs is about 167,000 songs for a dollar. And look, I know there are problems with making that comparison too, but my overarching point is you have to consider what a nearly infinite library of music is worth, not just what a person is used to spending on music.

Doubling the cost of that subscription will kill streaming, and drive people back to piracy.

Okay, so you're saying the average person would rather invest the time and energy to pirate songs album by album and store them--not to mention discover new music they like all on their own--than they would pay $20/mo instead of $10? I'm sorry, but that's a laughable contention. 1% of the population MIGHT consider $10 worth the extra time/energy and the massive downgrade to the size of their music library, but the rest would most certainly not. People would be pissed for a moment in time (as they do anytime a price goes up) and then they'd cough up.

Thanks for the chart about prices dropping. It's clear the internet is the cause of the drop in album sales revenue. My point is simply this: The advent of sharing and piracy created a boon for consumers but a problem for the market and for non-megastar artists. I think streaming services could be the solution to it, if we'd just realize its potential--consumers could still get all the music, and artists could get paid. I think fighting against a fair price for streaming is fighting against the best solution. Artists shouldn't have to rely on concerts and merch for revenue any more than a painter should have to rely on speaking tours (instead of demanding thousands for a good painting) for revenue. Art costs money, and Jay-Z is right on this one: After a few decades of getting music almost for free, people have simply lost a sense of respect for artists as working people deserving of a day's pay.

/r/entertainment Thread Parent Link - qz.com