So Many Music Streaming Apps!

Music streaming apps are becoming ever more popular as the desire to have everything in one place becomes more apparent. For a set amount each month, you can log in to a huge database of music using the internet which you can then listen to at your leisure. It's great for the consumer, though how does it actually make money?

The idea is that it earns enough money from paid subscriptions that it can pay back its royalties and fund the day-to-day running of the business. However, most of these companies are actually making a loss at the moment. For example, Spotify lost €58.7m in 2012 as the amount it had to pay out to musicians greatly surpassed the amount it took in from its subscribers.

The challenge is in finding a way to target a larger audience, but it's very difficult to do that if there are so many of the apps out there! I've come into contact with Spotify, Deezer, Grooveshark, SoundCloud, MusicXray, Xbox Music, and most recently Songza, but I'm sure there are many more. To be honest, there are just too many to choose, so I am not subscribed to any (though that may also be because I don't have the money to do so).

However, I do have Deezer on my mobile as it is part of my phone contract, where I get it as no additional cost. I have to say, it is very good as I can listen to whatever I want, for free! But the plan was not to advertise these, I was meant to write about how annoying they all were; well, that failed. Personally, I don't think it's worth the monthly fee unless you have lots of money rolling around as you can easily listen to tracks for free on YouTube (although it does require an internet connection). Maybe I'm just a cheapskate.