Implications for the Music Industry

In the last post we looked at the changes that one could expect in the global music market. These changes would have several implications to the Music Industry itself, the Traditional Broadcasters and CE (Consumer Electronics) vendors. In this post, we will look into the implications to the music industry.

• Biggest change would be the importance of "webcasting" which is poised to become the main source of streaming audio, as opposed to the traditional radio's role in promoting the recorded music.
• Consumers likely to expect such webcasts to be free or very low cost. This would mean established subscription services like Rhapsody and Sirius (who currently charge about $12 a month) are likely to be challenged by new players charging very low subscription rates (example: Pandora) or even completely free.
• Low barriers to entry and the global nature of interner only mean that thousands of webcasters might emerge and this could challenge the current licensing structure of music rights.
• Advertising could be the way forward to make-up some costs.
  
• It would be interesting to see what Apple does. Currently iTunes dominates the paid download market, would they introduce subscription? or even free streaming? Or would they come up with yet another game-changing strategy?
  

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com