> driven by paid subscription streaming If you look at the RIAA's revenue figures over time: https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/ https://www.riaa.com/u-s

> driven by paid subscription streaming If you look at the RIAA's revenue figures over time: https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/ https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/ The story they sure seem to tell is that revenues in the music markets over the last 40-50 years are driven as much (or more) by favorable macroeconomic trends than any particular format. Hence the huge rise in CD sales in the irrational exuberance of the 90s. Was there anything about CDs in particular? Maybe the quality got people to pay more and boost revenues, but that probably wouldn't have happened w/o increased disposable income. CDs prominent heights in that chart are as much a function of when they were introduced (during boom time) as much as anything else. They didn't "drive" revenues themselves. Streaming is probably pretty similar. There's some particular features: streaming increases convenience when it comes to management/access and dramatically slashes the consumer cost (and artist revenue). But I'm not going to bet it's driving revenue over macroeconomic trends. In fact, I'd be willing to bet it has actually hobbled revenue at some level, since it cannibalized digital retail that was growing pretty handily even during the last recession and piracy options. Guess we'll need a recession like 2007 to find out. Streaming might be stickier than other formats since cost is capped, but I wouldn't rule out that paid subscriptions suffer.