Stream On

The Coup

20 years ago, two teenagers brought the music establishment to its knees. And a decade later, a startup was launched halfway around the world that’s reinvigorated it.

The recording industry has experienced a whiplash of change, and has somehow come out on the other end of it… still standing. It’s one of the few categories we can look to that’s gone through the full cycle of a coup.

First we bought. Then we “shared”. And now… we stream.

And with changes to distribution and format, have come changes to everything— from how we listen, to the way popular music sounds.

But with artists struggling to make a living — and the industry’s biggest streaming still not profitable— who’s this new model really working for?

How has music’s old establishment faired? And where is it’s new one taking us next?