If they are only noticing it now, they are in real trouble
Streaming music is killing paid downloads
Music streaming is cannibalizing the download market. This is what Nielsen says in its latest report released a few hours ago. Impetuous numbers were disclosed by the New York-based company. Numbers that sound like a funeral march for paid music download services (such as iTunes, to be clear). The report concerns the first six months of 2014 and focuses on the US market. According to Nielsen, streaming services grew by 42%, with over 70 billion tracks played through services like Spotify or Deezer (it was just under 50 billion in the first half of 2013).
"Downloading a track already seems like something from the past."
The only limitation I see is that the implicit assumption being made is that one is always online, and this is not always possible or services do not meet expectations.
Another thing that comes to mind is the car issue; basically, the classic USB stick doesn't seem so easily replaceable by streaming, or am I wrong?
Yes, of course, but I think by streaming they mean consumption. With some simple little programs today, you can download the audio track directly from a video that is supposed to stream from YouTube in less than 10 seconds. People don't buy from stores anymore. But this is also market forces, gentlemen. If I have money and a rifle, I leave the rifle in the gun rack and go buy meat because for the rest of the day I don't have time to go hunting because I have to work. If I don't work and do nothing all day, I don't have money because I don't have a job; I have to grab the rifle and find my prey if I want to eat meat. The argument here is totally analogous. At least at an Italian level, we have a skyrocketing unemployment rate; those who work are mostly elderly people who do not want to leave their jobs even after reaching retirement age. On average, the elderly person does not download music from iTunes (we are making statistical arguments here); if I asked my father: "Dad, do you buy music from iTunes?", he would answer me: "From Ai-che?", and 90% of his friends would do the same. Young people have no money and resort to streaming or pirated downloads. It's just market forces...
Up to a certain point Simone, there are sites from which I have downloaded (legally) dozens of tracks for a few euros; with the money that certain kids spend on phone calls, cigarettes, gasoline, hairspray, clothes, etc... they could pay for the music they are looking for (and I think that only in 0.000001% of cases do they look for things that are truly "unfindable") and they would still have quite a bit of money left over; you know that often, very often, there is the excuse of not having money or, even worse, that everything must be within everyone's reach. Years ago I was looking for contemporary music scores that even Ricordi didn't have in their catalog; so I searched various sites and in the end I found them, all this while searching, whereas certain people give up after opening two links. Consider that I have heard of people who, despite earning more than me, constantly and doing non-strenuous work, do not even opt for a legal purchase, and they could do it. I earn in one year (when things go well) what they take in a month and a half, yet I contribute at home and despite this every now and then I manage to buy something and get "deals," always looking for the best solution. We have talked about it; I understand that certain software, for example, costs quite a bit, but precisely if I can manage to buy them despite everything (and this is truly the situation, the "crisis" for me has existed for almost 15 years), I don't see why they or anyone else shouldn't do it. So I agree with you, but only up to a certain point, precisely because I know how some people reason, and above all how many profit by reselling, particularly software and copied sound libraries.
Tell me about it... You're talking to someone who spent 1200 euros on two piano books that were regularly pirated.
The point is that phone calls, cigarettes, gasoline, hairspray, and clothes cannot be downloaded illegally, but music can. It is also true, as you say, that there are cases where even the wealthy download music, but when we reason about the large sample size, we cannot split hairs because it is not indicative. I still maintain the idea that if there were prosperity in a nation, there would be no problem downloading paid music from iTunes. If you earn 2000 euros a month, inflation is low, and you manage to save 1000 euros a month, I don't think most people would have trouble spending 90 cents to buy an mp3 from iTunes, since it is also a very convenient store. Once the credit card is entered, you just press the "buy" button and enter your Apple ID; it couldn't be easier. Obviously, the mp3s on iTunes then pass a quality control check. There, you certainly won't find music converted from YouTube videos.
A few years ago I downloaded almost 100 tracks from the legalsounds website paying about 7/8 euros, it seems to me that the quality of the mp3s was at least 192 khz.
