Back in the 90s, I saved money from working for my dad’s landscaping company in the summer time. I had a Sony Walkman Discman player–the successor to the 80s cassette tape version of the portable music phenomenon. I put a new pack of AA batteries in them every two weeks.
I remember CD stores weren’t as hard to find as they are in 2014. Before the time of file sharing kick started by Napster, box stores such as Media Play were the go-to location for a ridiculous selection of albums, books and movies. Today, services such as NetFlix, Spotify, YouTube, and Kindle have chipped away into the hard copy media formats extensively.
When Apple introduced the iPod and iTunes hardware and software packages to the masses, Steve Jobs once declared that “consumers want to own their music, not rent it”. This statement was made during a time when subscription services and available broadband capacities weren’t up to speed. Contrary to the vision of the late Jobs, modern music audiences are electing to rent their music through the paid subscription services of Spotify and Pandora.
By offering free, PC only streaming for casual consumers, these two services are tapping into a growing market that is saving money and taking advantage of advertisement paid listening services such as Spotify. According to Forbes, industry leaders are hoping this sparks new life into a fledgling music industry.
Listening to Pandora as we speak!!!