Great to see dance music distributors like ST Holdings removing their content from music subscription services like Spotify. They release some of my favourite dance music artists and the last thing I want to see is those companies going to the wall. Their statement is here on why they are removing content to protect direct music sales, in both digital and product formats.

While I agree that there are many benefits for the average music listener to have instant access to whatever music they like, the business models just do not work for the record labels and certainly not the musicians.

The old adage is the customer is always right. Yes, this is true in a service aspect where a company wishes to provide effective and professional service, meeting support demands for products is key. However, it’s not the benchmark when setting your pricing and product value. The customer in 90% of cases will always demand your work for no pay, and this is where music model is heading.

As we pointed out in our second part of the Music in Digital Age post, the artist has to set their value point. Cheap like Wilkos or premium like Louis Vuitton etc.  Currently music labels and digital download services are competing by offering the cheapest and easiest service.  That business model never works in the long term.  I think it is great that music labels and artists are beginning to stop competing for customers unwilling to pay reasonable fee for their work. It’s going to be interesting how this one develops.

I think alongside Spotify, and other music subscription services, another major problem is full tracks on sites like YouTube. It’s the same principle, if you can listen to music whenever for free, why bother buying it?  The royalty rates from music plays on these services, which build their business on the music’s content, is derisory. $12 for Rick Astley and his 40million plays are pretty much peanuts!

You can find a highlight of the findings that subscription services like Spotify lower actual music sales over at Digital Music News

We’re going to be developing our initial work on music in the digital age with the guys over at Data Transmission over the coming months, so look out for more views and ideas to maximise the value of your music…

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