As with many issues in the modern music industry, the debate around whether streaming services like Spotify are additive or cannibalistic tends to be polarised: it can feel like you either have to be for or against. In fact, plenty of people are still undecided. Witness IODA founder Kevin Arnold’s comments at the SF MusicTech Summit yesterday. “I wouldn’t say it’s much ado about nothing, but about something we really don’t understand yet… I wouldn’t say for any IODA client, ‘you are absolutely not going to be impacted with a new release on CD sales at this point yet.’ But overall, it looks like it’s additive to us, and it hasn’t impacted the aggregate growth of the download stores, and those trends in serious ways.” Arnold added that IODA is scrutinising several case studies. “In some cases we do see that there seems to be some impact, but it’s certainly not something that applies across the board. The question is just starting to get answered, it’s too early for me and our client base.”
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