Billboard report: US Users' Music Streaming Doubled From Prior Year

Theverge.com summarized a story originally appearing in billboard.com regarding music streaming in the United States. The gist is that the streaming music current is moving swiftly (no pun intended) stronger. According to theverge.com's story, the volume of streamed music has doubled over the prior year's activity. By any standard, that's a profound amount of interest in musical content. Little wonder, then, that Taylor Swift and other A-list music celebrities want substantial control over their sales and distribution.

Interestingly enough, music videos represented the largest user increase. This phenomenon dovetails with social media marketing's current mantra that videos and still images drive much more traffic than mere alphanumeric tweets, pins, or posts. I can't speak to the reliability of the Nielsen data quoted in theverge.com's article. However, anecdotally, I see plenty of people watching some video clip on their cell phones. God only knows what has them entertained or absorbed. In a YouTube universe, that consideration becomes the territory of analytics, data "scientists," and "innovators" sizing up the relationship between social engagement, content, and gross profit.

Music tends to be a Trojan horse for digital trends. Whether the power in the streaming relationship remains with the consumer is a thorny question. "Free" always sounds good, until you're the one giving your merchandise away, and your counterpart views gratis acquisition as an entitlement.