As if a beleaguered music industry didn’t already have enough to contend with, the rise of streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, Pandora, Deezer and Tidal – yes! even Tidal! – have changed the way many people listen to music. It has also brought about a new form of piracy, known as “stream ripping”.
This new type of copyright infringement has overtaken conventional music download piracy.
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It’s not all days of wine and roses at the streaming companies, either. Spotify is the most successful streaming music service in the world and streaming is the music industry’s fastest-growing revenue source, yet none of the popular services has yet turned a profit.
Spotify has reportedly been in talks to acquire SoundCloud for some months now, but still no decisive action.
