MELBOURNE, Australia,
July 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/
-- Legally accessing almost any song you want to hear has
never been easier or more inexpensive.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160728/393752
In July 2016, the BBC announced
that audio streaming has overtaken video for the first time in the
US, thanks to several high-profile album releases by the likes of
Drake, Beyoncé and Rihanna.
In the first half of 2016, online streaming services
delivered some 114 billion audio streams, compared with 95 billion
video streams.
The streaming market has increased by 58% year-on-year.
With the advent of smartphones and the rising popularity of
music streaming apps, like Apple Music,
Spotify, Rdio, and most recently
YouTubeRed, we've now been granted access to a world
of music that is literally at our fingertips, completely legally,
and at a low monthly fee, or even free with running costs supported
by advertising.
As of mid-2016, there are more than 20 popular music streaming
apps available. According to Spotify, (one of the
most popular apps) they boast a base of over 75 million users,
while Pandora lists over 250 million registered users, with
79.4 million active users as of 2015 last year.
Legally purchasing music has also never been easier.
iTunes, Amazon Music and Google Play require
just a click to download and permanently keep songs from
your favorite artists. Rather not purchase an entire album?
Simple; buy a single track for a fraction of the cost.
These promising statistics and encouraging
developments would suggest that people are flocking to such
streaming services and moving away from pirating music through
torrents and peer-to-peer networks. The signs are that the days of
music piracy are coming to an end, right?
It appears not to be the case.
Despite low costs, abundant options and enhanced accessibility
to music, the indications are that file sharing may still be on the
rise, suggesting that music piracy is also still on an upward
spiral.
A data report, published by CiscoVisual
Networking, shows that an average of 858 petabytes (1 petabyte
= 1 million gigabytes) of files were shared, per month, in 2015.
This figure increased to 932 petabytes in 2016, and is forecast to
increase to 1,019 petabytes in 2017.
Content protection company MUSO recently revealed 2016
data showing that during 2015, music piracy, in the form of direct
downloads, grew by a staggering 31%.
Culture and lifestyle hub Provenance Magazine has taken a
closer, more personal, look at the problem by conducting a study of
100 US-based participants, analysing their music-downloading habits
with online music use and piracy. The magazine's findings uncovered
the following data on the topic:
Out of the 100 participants, nearly 78% are currently using an
online-streaming app.
32% admit to pirating music at least once a month.
10.7% have kicked the habit of pirating music, opting for
streaming apps or purchases.
8.7% admitted they still pirate music, simply out of habit.
11.65% of participants justified their habits, saying they
pirate music, but claim to support the artists in other ways, for
example, paying to see them in concert.
Promisingly, numerous subjects admitted previously pirating
music because it was the easiest way. However, there are
now easier options, and they're willing to pay a reasonable
price for the streaming app they use.
65% of subjects also believe that music streaming will become
more popular than online music piracy in the next five
years.
Andy Lee, Provenance
Magazine's editor-in-chief, also has an optimistic outlook on
the issue, suggesting that trends will shift with time.
"When we look at the big picture of the Internet, online music
streaming is still a relatively new player in the mainstream
spotlight. There are heaps of great services out there, all
continually evolving their technologies and offering faster,
cheaper, and more full-featured service than their competition.
It's an easy, low-cost and convenient trend that's catching on, and
will only gain momentum over the next few years," he says.
Lee also shared another interesting perspective on music
piracy.
"Once people see their favorite acts or artists from
an intimate perspective, either at a concert in real-life or
telling their story in an interview, people quite often feel more
of a personal connection with the performers and become more
reluctant to pirate their work, viewing the artist as a person
as opposed to mere digital entity."
Provenance Magazine is doing its part to help.
Tailor-made for adventurous young millennials, the
newly-minted online culture and lifestyle hub was founded as a
haven of genuine, relatable stories of art and culture, food
and travel from across the world. In the two months since its
launch, the magazine has already attracted thousands of readers and
followers from across the world.
Their most recent interviewees include blues legend, Jamie N
Commons, whose work has been used to promote Game of
Thrones and the BBC's broadcast of the 2016
Olympics, alongside top culture, food and travel personalities
from the US, Canada, Australia and Malaysia.
Related Links
Provenance Magazine
@ProvenanceMag
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SOURCE Provenance Magazine