Some interesting news from the CEO of Universal who announces that streaming music in the U.K. has increased from 1.1bn tracks in 2011 to 7.5bn so far in 2012. There is little surprise that there is an increase but the scale of the jump (if it continues at this rate the number of tracks will be approaching ~10bn) is remarkable and indicative of modern consumer trends and a convergence to ad and subscription-based digital music outlets, rather than album purchases, which have taken a sharp downturn. The interesting question here is that how will this effect the underground community? Will it make underground artists more accessible – just look at Bandcamp’s popularity – or will it secure the stranglehold on the mainstream?
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