For years the music industry has been whining about the digital apocalypse in general and streaming in particular. They were steadfast in their refusal to consider embracing new business models and held firm to the model that had always worked so well in the past.
Now All Things D is reporting that streaming accounted for 25% of Warner Music Group’s revenue in the last quarter. Significantly, the increase in streaming revenue did not come at the expense of traditional digital sales such as iTunes. Also significant is the fact that the increase in digital sales is greater than the decrease in the sale of physical media.
As many of us have said for years, the industry would have been much better off to devise and deploy new business models rather than suing their customers and third party enterprises that were trying to deliver music in new and efficient ways. None of this means that the music industry is changing its ways, of course, only that they’ve lost one more excuse for their shortsightedness.