Quote:
Originally Posted by
Trill Trax
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Seems plausible. It's hard to find a compelling logic that recommends one's purchase of a track if one can be assured of reliable access to that track through an online streaming service. I'd expect that the streaming service marketplace will mature to a point where terms are more competitively equitable for their content providers as/if this shift continues.
I used the word "
purchase" in conjunction with payment for digital music file downloads, but it warrants noting that this is a misnomer:
license would be a more appropriate verb (as would be the compound
puchase a license), because one does not purchase music files; one licenses them. Licensing is distinguished from purchasing in this context by the absence of rights traditionally associated with physical object purchases; such as the doctrinal (in the United States)
right to resale. Bearing in mind this distinction, the consumer opting to subscribe to a streaming service (which likely has convenient cross-device support) over individually licensing/downloading tracks is making a rational economic decision.