It seems that there is a bit of a monkey-see, monkey-do when it comes to industry behaviors. Remember how the PRS for Music over in the UK lowered royalties for streaming songs online earlier in the week? Well, it seems that Warner Music has decided to follow suit and get on board the sensibility train by forgiving streaming service Imeem’s debt to the label. While many seem to be looking on this move with some level of admiration about how this is yet another groundbreaking moment for the music industry, one cannot help but think that this is something that should have happened much, much sooner.
Streaming services are the new way in which consumers find music they want to buy. That’s the whole point of Pandora – you enter something you like, and it tries to find you more stuff you like. If it does its job, you go out and buy the song, which in turn puts money in the pockets of music labels. But when the labels charge royalties that are too high for the streaming sites to stay afloat, the labels are killing two birds with one stone: the streaming businesses and themselves. It’s nice that Warner has realized that being nicer to companies like Imeem will be beneficial in the long run, but it’s one of those actions that makes onlookers shout an exasperated “finally!”
