In about one month’s time, we’ll know how many people are willing to pay for Apple Music.  That number is absolutely critical to the future of streaming music, a sector that is proving ineffective at getting enough people to pay.  According to the latest data released by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), paying subscribers increased just 2.5 percent in the past year, to 8.1 million by the mid-point of 2015.

The stat bears repeating: paying subscribers only increased 2.5 percent in the past year in the United States, the largest music economy in the world.

The question is critical, because without more paying subscribes, there really isn’t a sustainable streaming music business.  a quick look at the data shows that paying subscribers contribute disproportionately large amounts of revenue: in fact, 73 percent of all streaming music revenue comes from paying subscribers (for year 2014).  The remaining 27 percent comes from advertising, or ‘freemium,’ which means that most users are contributing very little revenue to companies like Spotify.<!–/*
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And without more of these paying people, there isn’t a sustainable streaming music industry.

Can Apple save this situation?  Maybe, but for most users, there are just way to many free options, starting with YouTube, SoundCloud, and iTunes podcasting.  According to a report this morning in the New York Post (for what it’s worth), Apple Music now has 15 million people trialling their service, with 7.5 million of those not disabling the automatic rollover setting into paid accounts.

So if every single one of those 7.5 million people ended up becoming long-term subscribers (beyond one month of realizing they’re getting charged), then the US-based streaming music industry just doubled its paid subscriber total.  The more realistic number, however, is probably much lower than that.

The post What If There Aren’t Any More Streaming Music Subscribers? appeared first on Digital Music News.

Source: Industry News

Last week, Aurous revealed plans to develop a BitTorrent-enabled music application, essentially the music equivalent of Popcorn Time.  “The app itself is decentralized, nothing routes through any external servers for the primary features,” developer Andrew Sampson told Torrentfreak.  “Even if as a project, development stopped and we shut down our website, the app would still continue functioning without any problems.”

“It can look through entire BitTorrent archives in milliseconds to get individual files.”

Now, Aurous is pitching for cash, with an initial goal of $25,000 to get the ball rolling.

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// ]]>In just the first few hours, the music industry’s next public enemy number one has raised nearly $500, or 2 percent of that goal.  It’s unclear if the music industry powers-that-be, including the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) are taking any steps against Aurous (we’re awaiting response), or, if they’re even aware of it.

Just recently, the RIAA coordinated with the FBI and other authorities to shut down highly-trafficked file-sharing site ShareBeast.

The post Aurous, the ‘Popcorn Time for Music,’ Is Now Crowdfunding for Cash appeared first on Digital Music News.

Source: Industry News