Consolidated catalogs let Big 3 labels dominate licensing negotiations

Evidence

A central strategy the Big 3 recording cartel utilizes is leveraging their catalogs of recording copyrights in licensing negotiations with on-demand subscription platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Vevo, Tidal, Deezer, and other companies that require access to major-label catalogs to function. Unlike the screen industries—which have trained consumers to purchase film and television products at descending price points through different windows of release, never expecting a full, on-demand catalog, which maintains a more diverse and competitive market—the music industry has relinquished such a distribution chain. Consumers of music have now come to expect near total access to popular music, dating back many decades. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 205

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts music’s near-total catalog expectation with Hollywood’s windowed release model, directly relevant to comparing how film vs music ownership structures shape consumer access.
• QUESTION: The claim that screen industries ‘trained’ consumers vs music industry not doing so raises how industry structure, not just consumer choice, produced the streaming format.