Give Jay-Z's Tidal tune stream thing a chance, says indie label boss

Income from loopy, star-owned vanity project better than no income at all

Streaming is free?

We’re currently in the second phase of streaming, and nobody can predict how it will turn out.

“In the first phase, the labels will take a massive advance that doesn’t recoup – that the artist doesn’t see. The second phase is that they recoup – that’s the phase we’re in now, of mature streaming. There may be a third phase where it scales, and there’s so much money in the pot that it doesn’t matter. Maybe that third phase doesn’t exist,” Goldschmidt suggests.

“For me, the ‘free’ worry is YouTube, it’s Soundcloud and it’s Pandora. Premium streaming is good income. Spotify claim to be upselling 25 per cent of their free listeners. If streaming services are policed, and have to contractually pay out, then premium is fine. But if freemium becomes the end game, we may as well pack up and go home.”

He continues: “Spotify actually hate freemium themselves, it costs them a lot of money – but it’s a great marketing tool. That said, freemium will probably be the end game in Russia and China and India, because they’re so poor.”

Even though China and India are bringing so many poor into a new middle class?

“We could focus on that (middle class), but there’s quite a few people there with less money, which is the mass market,” he says.

But he welcomes Tidal, the no-freemium, higher-priced streaming service acquired and given a celeb-heavy launch by owner Jay-Z (Shaun Carter).

“The fact Tidal is going for it is really good. I’m a bit dubious that it’s going to be the winner, given they’re up against Spotify, Apple is coming into the game and Google is standing by with Music Key.” Google has a huge advantage from the dark side, he notes:

“Google can send illegal mp3 searches straight to Music Key, and it’s got Android.”