Warner Music Group Quits Free Music Streaming?

By Geoff Duncan February 10, 2010

Warner Music Group Green Day — Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you’re a fan of free online streaming music services like Last.fm or Spotify, your music selection might be getting a lot smaller. Warner Music Group, one of the big four record labels, has apparently decided that free music streaming sites aren’t doing it any good, with CEO Edgar Bronfman saying yesterday that such services were “clearly no positive for the industry.”

Warner Music Group has yet to make any official announcements regarding the availability of its artists for free streaming services, but sources in the industry consistently indicate any shift in stance from Warner is unlikely to impact deals currently in place: so, Warner Music Group artists currently available to free streaming services should continue to remain available for the duration of existing agreements. However, how Warner Music Group will handle the availability of new material and new artists—and whether it will renew any free music streaming agreements—remains to be seen.

Bronfman’s comments were part of the the company’s discussion of financial results for its first fiscal quarter of 2010 which saw the company losing about $17 million. Digital sales were up eight percent compared to the year before, but CD sales continued to decline. During the call, Bronfman indicated the free music streaming business model—which tries to migrate users to a premium service with additional features and capabilities—wasn’t something Warner “will be supporting in the future.”

Instead, Bronfman implied Warner Music would be looking to launch a subscription service of its own.

Bronfman also hinted that Warner, currently the third-largest of the major labels, hasn’t ruled out an acquisition of EMI, the smallest of the major music labels.

[Image: Warner Music Group artist Green Day]

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

These are the best OLED monitors to buy in 2024

An OLED demo running on the MSI MPG321URX.

OLED monitors have emerged as a cutting-edge display technology, offering users a visual experience that goes beyond traditional LCD or LED monitors. With self-emitting pixels that deliver unparalleled contrast ratios, true blacks, and vibrant colors, OLED monitors redefine the standards for visual excellence. These displays not only elevate the viewing experience for entertainment and gaming, but also prove to be invaluable for professional tasks where color accuracy and clarity are paramount.

Notably, some OLED TVs are doubling as monitor alternatives, and they come equipped with compatible software features like AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync.

Computing

Dell’s most popular 2-in-1 laptop is discounted from $700 to $450

The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 on a white background.

Today Dell has not just one of the best laptop deals but one of the cheapest ones: It’s currently possible to buy a Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 laptop for just $450 thereby saving $250 off the regular price of $700. Perfect for when you can’t decide if you need a tablet or a laptop, the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 is a true bargain. However, it’s a clearance deal so you don’t have long left to snap it up. Here’s what you need to know before you tap the buy button.

Why you should buy the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1
You won’t see the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 in our look at the best 2-in-1 laptops but that’s hardly surprising at this price. It still shares much of the same functionality and is from one of the best laptop brands. This particular model has an AMD Ryzen 5 7530U processor, 8GB of memory, and 512GB of SSD storage.

Computing

Best external hard drive deals: Portable SSDs, game drives & more

A man uses a WD My Passport external hard drive alongside his laptop.

While a lot of content has gone digital these days, including things like cloud storage services allowing us to store our files online, having a physical form of storage to keep with you is important. In a similar vein, it's frustrating that some of the best phones on the market don't even come with a lot of internal space, while most laptop deals you take advantage of also likely will land you with less than 1TB of storage. To that end, we've gone out and collected some of our favorite external hard drive deals we could find and collected them below, and some of them are even the best external hard drives on the market, so be sure to check out all our picks.
Seagate FireCuda Gaming 2TB -- $60, was $100

If you have a gaming setup that's full of RGB and you want to add a little bit to it while still extending your hard drive space, then you should absolutely grab this 2TB Seagate FireCuda Gaming. It has a customizable LED under the bottom lip of the hard drive, and it even comes with the latest 3.2 gen USB standard, so you can game off of it directly on your PC or older console. While you hopefully won't need it, it also comes with 3-years of data recovery service, which is a nice plus at this price bracket.