Three years ago Warner Music restricted Canadians from watching “Bed of Rose” by Faith Hill but it’s online since the labels have learned to embrace streaming music.
When I wrote Warner Music Hates Fans in Canada, they had blocked Canadians from seeing YouTube videos by Warner Music artists. Now if you want to hear the song, just stream it on Spotify or Xbox Music.
In the meantime, Warner and most of the other labels have signed deals that pay them royalties when we watch their videos on YouTube or stream them on Spotify and Xbox Music.
That’s great for fans. YouTube videos are one of the most popular ways to listen to music and more than 40% of North Americans watch YouTube on smartphones and tablets.
Streaming music on portable devices is becoming more and more popular today with services like Spotify and YouTube. Spotify is a subscription service. With YouTube the put ads on before you can see the video.
Microsoft Xbox music allows free streaming with Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.
Sometimes when I’m working around the house, I’ll just put Xbox Music on my phone and let it play songs in rotation. If you pick the first few songs Xbox Music will play music that is similar. The odd short advertisement doesn’t bother you. It’s like the radio. There is a limitation of 10 hours a month but if you add to that all your own music, it’s hard to go over the limit/
Xbox Explore plays the latest releases and if you like them you can buy the music.
The Premium Music Pass on Xbox Music allows free unlimited streaming of over millions songs.
You would think, and some artists will claim, that streaming hurts their income. Carly Rae Jepson made more money from YouTube than she did from iTunes with “Call Me Maybe.” The music business has an entirely new business model and we get to hear our favorite songs everywhere we go.
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