Unintended consequences – the year ahead for streamingStreaming may be maturing from a revenue perspective but with two-tier (‘artist centric’) licensing and supremium, 2025 is set to be a year of transformative change in both product and business terms. While each of these initiatives were designed with clear objectives, it is not so much the immediate consequences but the second order consequences that warrant most attention. As is so often the case, it is the unintended knock-on effects of actions that will likely prove to be most impactful, for both the business and culture of music. Here is what some of these may be for two-tier licensing and supremium.

Second order consequences of two-tier licensing:

An industry underclass: It is all too easy to dismiss small, long-tail labels and artists as ‘garbage’ and ‘flotsam and jetsam’ but this risks being seen as an elitist view from the top. The long tail is a mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly – just as commercially successful music is. But the demonetisation of