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Streaming is For Old Folks

I just read this article on a new streaming music service for Austrailia. It isn't going to work. The problem with streaming is that it doesn't consider the audience. Folks who have jobs and more than likely work on a computer all day love the idea of opening some streaming service app and listening to great music all day. A select few might be interested in DJing their dinner party or get together with friends using the catalog of a great streaming service. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, but if you ask the kids, my bet is they'll just use YouTube.

This lack of acknowledgement for the audience of these services doesn't provide much hope for the music industry. Kids are different from young adults and folks halfway through life are radically different from both. This can't be surprising. People have phones, text messaging, instant messaging, email, twitter, facebook, posterous, tumblr, etc. that all basically do the same thing. We're talking communication and the possibilities are endless. It makes no sense that the music industry think streaming is the next album. Technology has blown the doors open, so why sit there and try and squeeze the populace into one medium. Everyone has different contexts when listening to music, so the future is providing those contexts online and offline.

I think the music industry needs to consider its place within youth culture. When I was a kid, the radio seemed to have integrity and cool. I could listen to edgy bands even though my sister was pushing Tiffany. While I wasn't on the cusp of underground music, I ended up looking and finding bands like Fugazi. The music defined who I was. Now, kids are still defined by music, but the difference is the concept of an underground is gone. It is too easy to be found, which means that kids don't necessarily care about obscurity. They just want to find music that helps give them definition. Here is where streaming services fall short. The focus is providing music instead of expressing youth culture. The sttreaming service can't define a genre or present a style. The streaming service isn't the local record store staff picks. While it opens up possibilities in terms of access, it doesn't help youth find bands that signify who they are. That is why things like blogs, youtube, facebook, twitter and the wealth of tools aiding communication are where the future is. These tools let people find the artists that help to define their persona.

Personally, I'm not really a fan of streaming services. Yet, I do understand the appeal. I used to run a server from my house so I could stream songs on demand at work. It was kind of slow, but I really enjoyed having the access. That said, discovering new bands was still all about google and blogs. My guess is that there will never be another "album" or medium that corners the music market. It is a waste of time at this point. The album artwork is effectively worthless compared to a website with a blog and forum. When you throw flickr and youtube in the mix, the idea of selling a CD with 10 songs on it makes no sense at all. Nostalga is definitely worth something, but in the end, self expression is where music has always been and should stay. In other words, no one defines themselves by a pipe of on demand music.

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