Warner Music to Stop Streaming Free Music

Warner Music has announced plans to stop licensing its artists’ content on free streaming sites.

According to NME.Com, the label’s chief executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. said that these sorts of services were not positive for the music industry.

The move could mean the end of free streaming of music from artists like Muse, REM, and red Hot Chili Peppers.

“Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry and as far as Warner Music is concerned will not be licensed,” Bronfman said in a statement. “The ‘get all your music you want for free, and then maybe with a few bells and whistles we can move you to a premium price strategy’, is not the kind of approach to business that we will be supporting in the future.”

A spokesperson from Warner confirmed that the new plans are likely to affect only future deals, meaning that streaming applications such as Spotify, We7, and Last.FM, which already host Warner Music artists, will not be affected, at least not for now.

The goal of Warner is to reduce the number of people who currently buy music from iTunes.