Rock.Hard place.Music industry.

My friend’s little home studio where I recently recorded some music of my own. 
What a time to be alive ! 

The much embattled music industry complains about You Tube not paying them a fair share of the ad revenue that it makes from music videos. (Read here). As a lifelong music fanatic and a big You Tube lover - among other things, You Tube has put several lifetimes worth of music within easy access, after all ! - this puts me in a quandary. It's a tough one.

On the one hand, according to industry body the IFPI, the revenue per user going to the music industry from You Tube and other free services is a staggering 20-30x lower than from paid streaming services ($0.6 vs $18 in the chart below). On the other, You Tube et al deliver 5x the audience. Wouldn't the biggest distributor hold and exercise similar bargaining power anywhere ? And from the POV of music itself, You Tube are one of those at the frontlines of democratizing and leveling the field for whoever wants to give it a shot - an often unacknowledged cultural-good role that it plays. Could that be a worthwhile 'externality' (in economics-speak) ?

Commercially, one way of looking at it is to ask the opportunity cost of not being on You Tube. Who can tell for sure but one suspects it would be significant - going by what we see all around us across music or video or gaming , surely most of those being monetized by YT would not otherwise opt for a paid service ?!

All of which is not to say that artistes and/or creators should not get paid their due. On the contrary ! Certainly the reported 30x 'Value Gap' (read and download the IFPI Global Music Report 2017 here) seems excessive and should ideally be reduced. The point,though is that it's, well, complicated. The ground under 'due' itself has shifted dramatically thanks (or no thanks, if you prefer) to the massive tech-disruption that this particular market has been confronted with. 

There are just no easy answers.

It's heartening to read that the music industry has turned a bit of a corner recently and reversed years of decline to post a + 6% revenue growth driven by streaming (+60%). One hopes this continues and that all parties come together to find a mutually beneficial solution. Like most human endeavors, music (and art in general) relies on commerce to thrive ; but like only those few special endeavors, I believe it goes beyond commerce !

I for one will be watching this space. Or 'listening' to it ! :) Thanks for reading. Cheers !