Streaming rates cut to lure back YouTube, Pandora Online services have welcomed a new rate schedule that will cut the cost of music streams in the UK. The PRS yesterday cut the cost of royalties owed for streaming a song from 0.22p to 0.085p. The headline rate rises to from 8 per cent to 10.5 per cent of revenue, supposing the company has any. Steve Purdham, chief executive …
The PRS rate really is going from 0.22p (£0.0022) to 0.085p (£0.00058) per stream.
However, that is only part of the cost of streaming, as you have to pay the music label too, and they charge ~£0.007 per stream, hence the 'shave 10 per cent from the cost of delivering music legally' bit of Steve's quote.
... yep they stay the same price.... free....
Seriously though, the coporations need to wake up and realise that when you compete with free you need to offer a low price with some value... and by value maybe no DRM, complementary additional material (e.g. getting a b-side free) etc etc
There are loads of ways the archaic people in the legal music world could capitalise on this, but they are so greedy they wont give an inch... cutting off their nose to spite their face!
The music industry around the world is missing the trick and have been for years. The opportunities to capitalize on all this is there waiting for them. However their greed, fear, and short sighted business model from the 1970's wont let them take advantage of it. The ones I feel sorry for in all this are the artists both in the spotlight and behind the scenes as it's them who really get screwed over. Screwed over the worse by the very people who are supposed to be representing them. However there is light at the end of the tunnel. I know a great many folks who are forgoing traditional channels and simply doing it themselves. No complex licensing schemes none of that other nonsense simply them selling their music at a fair price that covers their costs and allows them some profit. Part of this includes free and low cost downloads, incentives for physical purchase, downloads that are BOTH DRM FREE AND HIGH QUALITY. It is this kind of artist using that kind of distribution mechanism that will further cripple and perhaps bring to it's knees the tradition music industry. As bad as it would be for some, it would be a good thing for that to happen. Since I don't believe they will learn any other way then by having their business totally scrapped so that they have to start over again. Oh and do it right the second time around.
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