Because there was no incentive yet, obviously. Owning stuff on your harddrive is of not much use when you're constantly on the move and want to have easy access

Because there was no incentive yet, obviously. Owning stuff on your harddrive is of not much use when you're constantly on the move and want to have easy access to your music and have less and less use for a stationary pc anyway. For many people, streaming services are the future and this is actually the first music industry move to make sense in a long time. Also, it'd be interesting to see how music firms will justify suing you over alleged torrent downloads when you pay them 30 bucks for legalizing your stack.