owning assigns an actual dollar value to the underlying asset. streaming assigns an actual dollar value to the underlying service.
if the industry evolves to where music is viewed a subscription service then eventually the value of music is commoditized. generally this means all parties involved get paid less... and personally i'm ok with that. However, Spotify/Rdio/Mog should keep in mind that if and when it gets to that point, they will likely go out of business as it make less and less sense to use them as a distribution channel. Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and Twitter bring far more value to the table due to their large number of users and vertical product categories. also, since these platforms all cross each other paths at some point, it diminishes the bargaining power of each tech company.
i do agree that there should be incentives for a user to buy the actual asset. i'd probably structure it by using some sort "play a song X times" limit and Apple's cloud music matching. the theory being that if you're going to play a song a bazillion times in a month, just spend the $0.99 and buy the MP3 already. also, water under the bridge on all the pirated songs, match it for free. people really aren't going to waste time and money to re-buy those songs. labels should encourage them to waste time and money on new songs. if you stay with the subscription service for past 1 year, you get $X off all albums, past 2 years $Y off, so on and so forth. maybe heavily suggest similar unknown artists for popular songs, these are probably high(er) margin sales since the advertising budget is allocated all to Justin Bieber.
as a side note, i agree with Jessica Lares Spotify/Rdio/Mog are poor business models. basically it's a company going to another company proposing that both should try to eke out a miserly return on revenues of $10/month with equally depressing margins, out of users who don't want to pay, think they shouldn't have to pay, or would rather pirate. Spotify has what... 3M paying users? big whoop. if the other two are at parity that brings the total to 9M out of an estimated market size of too-big-to-count. and tech blogs are going gaga over what?
i fail to see what Apple would be nervous about in Spotify's business model.
I think Jobs had it wrong to a degree.
People "do" want to own music but it's prohibitively expensive if you've going a wide range of listening interests.
Apple's solution for streaming should be bent on creating owners of music. I should be able to stream music but also there should be some incentives for buying a song.
Streaming customers could get $.20 cents of a song or a certain amount off of albums.
Spotify is great for finding new music and being able to listen to more than just 90 seconds. Where it doesn't help is get artists paid and for that there needs to be higher royalties and a move towards "hey if you really like this song buy it and support the artist"
