Mike Mahoney has a post about music stored 'in the cloud' that provoked some thought. I wonder if we're 'not getting it' with music, and these services are a way of monetising something that many have missed.
Kids grew up listening to the radio. Music was always free - it was broadcast everywhere on the radio! All these streaming services are doing is offering the equivalent of 'radio on demand' without the annoying DJs, and playing the tunes people want. The old paradigm of owning a copy of the music hasn't disappeared, but instead people are treating music as they've been taught by several generations: that it should be everywhere freely available, and you only buy it if there's a reason.
And that, of course, explains why downloading and listening to music for free is not perceived as theft - there's a conflict between what they have been brought up to enjoy and what the law says. The conflict is at the deepest level, since they've always known music playing without restriction, and observed their parents apparently enjoying it freely, confirming it to be right and natural. Listening to music without payment is what they - and we - have been brought up to expect, so when it became detached from a physical product (and therefore cannot be stolen) why would they ever pay for it?
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