'The Internet will suck all creative content out of the world'

[Commentary] What are streaming services, what do they do and why are musicians complaining? There are a number of ways to stream music online: Pandora is like a radio station that plays stuff you like but doesn't take requests; YouTube plays individual songs that folks and corporations have uploaded and Spotify is a music library that plays whatever you want (if they have it), whenever you want it. Some of these services only work when you're online, but some, like Spotify, allow you to download your playlist songs and carry them around. For many music listeners, the choice is obvious – why would you ever buy a CD or pay for a download when you can stream your favorite albums and artists either for free, or for a nominal monthly charge? Not surprisingly, streaming looks to be the future of music consumption. Spotify is the second largest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Significantly, that's income for labels, not artists. There are other streaming services, too though my guess is that, as with most web-based businesses, only one will be left standing in the end. There aren't two Facebooks or Amazons. Domination and monopoly is the name of the game in the web marketplace. The amounts these services pay per stream is miniscule – their idea being that if enough people use the service those tiny grains of sand will pile up. In future, if artists have to rely almost exclusively on the income from these services, they'll be out of work within a year.

[David Byrne is an artist and musician. He was a co-founder of the band Talking Heads]