Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon got technical in discussing streaming’s sale vs. rental debate and alternative remuneration models at the U.K. Government’s ongoing inquiry into the economics of streaming.
Tuesday’s session heard from Spotify’s Head of Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer, Horacio Gutierrez, Apple Music’s Global Senior Director of Music Publishing, Elena Segal, and Amazon Music’s Director of International, Paul Firth.
Whether a stream is a sale or a rental has been a hotly contested issue in previous sessions and yesterday’s interviewees were posed the question. According to music:ally, Gutierrez said “renting has certain economic and legal connotations that I think are not 100% applicable to our scenario.” Segal said she sees streaming as a license: “We have a right, we have licenses that entitle us to sub-license to consumers and that’s always been true with music.”
Firth said that streaming is neither. “Streaming is something different, and trying to qualify it as something from the old world… it’s a classic square peg, round hole moment.”
