The streaming music industry in an emerging and misunderstood market. As each generation purchases less and less music, the ability for the industry to adapt has taken many different approaches. Streaming services are competing for a growing market as less consumers are downloading music while album and record labels are struggling to hedge their investments. As Derek Thompson effectively stated in The Atlantic:

“This is at least the third destructive wave for the music industry in the last decade and a half. First, Napster and illegal downloading sites ripped apart the album and distributed song files in a black market that music labels couldn’t touch. Second, Apple used the fear and desperation of the record labels to push a $0.99-per-song model on iTunes, which effectively destroyed the bundling power of the album in the eyes of millions of music fans (even though country album sales are still pretty strong). For a decade, music sales plummeted. Third, digital radio and streaming sites got so good that now many music fans wonder why they need to buy albums in the first place. So, they don’t.”

The music industry, which produces a simple and easily duplicable product, has had to contend with perhaps the fiercest technological transformation of almost any business out there. A little consumer choice is a dangerous thing.