Youtube Vs the Internet: The music streaming wars

YouTube is set to launch a music streaming service — and not everyone’s happy, writes John Hearne.

MIDEM is the music industry’s annual European get together. For four days in January, the brightest and best gather in an off-season Cannes to eat, talk, drink, listen to music, but mostly to give out.

This year, there was quite a bit to give out about. A few short weeks before the event, the US posted its worst week for album sales since records began in 1991. In the week ending January 12, only 4.25m units of either CD or vinyl were sold across the US; 240,000 less than the previous lowest figure, registered in October of last year. It’s got even worse since then. In the last week of August, the figure sank below 4m for the first time.