Streaming has arrived and is here to stay, that much is clear.  What is not is how it will impact existing music revenue streams.  Though neither a business model nor a product, streaming is the lens through which the irresistible force of the shift from ownership to access is best understood.  The first shift to digital was as disruptive as it was transformative.  The shift to access based models though represents a more dramatic shift that challenges existing business models to the core.  The first wave of subscribers was harvested directly from the most valuable download buyers, denting music sales in the process.  The next wave must both better compete with free streaming and draw from a more mainstream customer base.

Companies mentioned in this report: Spotify, Apple, Amazon, YouTube, Nielsen, Triton, Adswizz, Beats, Bandpage, Topspin