Immaterial goods

... After all, these are immaterial goods-- it costs us nothing to have our music on these services: no pressing, no printing, no shipping, no file space to save a paper receipt for 25 years. All true. But immaterial goods turn out to generate equally immaterial income.
Which gets to the heart of the problem. When I started making records, the model of economic exchange was exceedingly simple: make something, price it for more than it costs to manufacture, and sell it if you can. It was industrial capitalism, on a 7" scale. The model now seems closer to financial speculation. Pandora and Spotify are not selling goods; they are selling access, a piece of the action. [...] These aren't record companies-- they don't make records, or anything else; apparently not even income. They exist to attract speculative capital.

Damon Krukowski, "Making Cents" (via Pitchfork)

(da leggere anche il corollario di Maura Johnston, "Six reasons why “if you want to get paid for music you should play it live” is an idiotic argument")