To stream tunes, or to buy
Some in the music industry seem surprised that Spotify subscribers don't buy music. Odd, since they're substitute products.
I was fiddling with some backend stuff on the [former WordPress] blog today and came across a post from November 2011. It was obvious back then that the transition to digital wasn't going to be fun for artists:
... and never the twain shall meet. According to a report today on Digital Music News, users of Spotify tend not to purchase music. This is hardly surprising: streaming is a substitute. With the exception of aggregated rights owners, streaming is a revenue killer. It's bad news for recording artists.