Apple Music: A final nail in the coffin for paid downloads?

In an excellent piece today, Popjustice’s Peter Robinson describes how Apple Music has already changed his buying behavior.

With Apple pushing its streaming service on everyone who opens the Music app in iOS 8.4, anyone used to buying music via the iTunes Store (yes, people still do that – they keep much of the recorded music industry employed) will soon see how easy it is to just add a new release to their collection rather than pay for it – and they can do it straight from their music player rather than having to go to the Store’s own app.

The world’s biggest music retailer is now making it far more convenient and appealing to stream, so you’d have to really want to support an artist to pay out for their download. But it’s deeper than that; who knows what we’ve already missed out on?

“We don’t wonder what will happen when music download sales have totally evaporated because streaming is so convenient and so cheap and so attractive. So we stream and we listen and we don’t really notice that labels and artists aren’t doing the exciting or daring or foolhardy things they once did.”

If you’re a music fan you should read Peter’s piece…