It took a while to get there and it’s a relationship that’s still fraught with arguments and accusations of infidelity, but the music industry has finally come around to streaming, viewing it as the only viable future for music monetisation.

One of the biggest boons of streaming is the fact that it provides a convenient way for consumers to access all the music they could possibly want, which should hopefully act as a piracy deterrent. And the evidence suggests this is true.

After all, what’s easier? Tracking down and downloading album after album and song after song or simply signing up for Spotify?

But it looks as though the industry may have spoken too soon, because it’s in the midst of a battle with the new face of piracy and it’s called stream ripping. Before you ask: yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like – ripping songs from their streams.

According to the Australian Financial Review, almost half of 16-to-24-year-olds now use stream ripping software to illegally copy music from streams. The practice has actually supplanted illegal file-sharing as the most popular form of piracy.

The stream can come from almost any platform, whether on Apple Music, Spotify, or even YouTube. The stream ripping software then converts the stream into a permanent download. This is most often done with YouTube, since music on the site can be accessed for free.

What’s most worrying, particularly for labels and artists who were only recently finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, is that stream ripping is growing. According to figures from the IFPI, stream ripping use has jumped eight percent in the last 12 months.

Indeed, as torrent sites like KickAss Torrents and the Pirate Bay continue to drop like flies as a result of vigilant legal action from major labels and film studios, a new threat has emerged, forcing labels and studios to fight the war against piracy on a new front.

But the issue facing the industry is the fact that one can’t simply take down YouTube in order to stop piracy. The fight must then be brought to the makers of the stream ripping apps, which is a Hydra-like problem in much the same way that file-sharing was.

What’s more, as the Australian Financial Review notes, a MusicWatch survey found that 73 percent of users don’t believe they’re doing anything wrong by stream ripping, since the source of the music is legitimate and they’re simply making a permanent copy.

If nothing else, it’s proof that the music industry’s biggest challenge won’t be piracy, but attempting to sell music to a generation that has grown up in an environment in which music doesn’t necessarily have a monetary value and has essentially always been free.

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