Once some service controls a significant user base, its priorities start to shift. It's cheaper to make additional investments in advertising to gain users (or convince existing users to consume content you already license) rather than continue to add content. If you go from 1000 to 2000 titles, your reputation for content increases proportionately. If you go from 1,000,000 to 1,001,000 titles, it's not clear anyone will notice. It becomes increasingly expensive to enhance the value of your service by acquiring new content.
That depends on the licensing model. If you model it such that the content owner gets a fixed % of the revenue for each view they get, then once you get to 1,000,000 titles you wouldn't have to pay anything more for another 1,000 titles- the people who own those titles would organise themselves to put their content on your service since otherwise they would miss out on a revenue stream.
I think if a service like spotify or netflix gets a dominant position, and presents a deal that seems fair to everybody, eventually you'll be able to find pretty much every song/movie/etc on those services.
I had originally hoped that fair terms and a desire not to leave money on the table would have brought all content to all streaming services, but I mostly revised that opinion after reading comments like those of Eric Kessler:
There are unique hurdles in negotiating fair terms with every content owner simultaneously. Transaction costs are abundant, and some people just don't want to work with you.
Comments
Once some service controls a significant user base, its priorities start to shift. It's cheaper to make additional investments in advertising to gain users (or convince existing users to consume content you already license) rather than continue to add content. If you go from 1000 to 2000 titles, your reputation for content increases proportionately. If you go from 1,000,000 to 1,001,000 titles, it's not clear anyone will notice. It becomes increasingly expensive to enhance the value of your service by acquiring new content.
That depends on the licensing model. If you model it such that the content owner gets a fixed % of the revenue for each view they get, then once you get to 1,000,000 titles you wouldn't have to pay anything more for another 1,000 titles- the people who own those titles would organise themselves to put their content on your service since otherwise they would miss out on a revenue stream.
I think if a service like spotify or netflix gets a dominant position, and presents a deal that seems fair to everybody, eventually you'll be able to find pretty much every song/movie/etc on those services.
I had originally hoped that fair terms and a desire not to leave money on the table would have brought all content to all streaming services, but I mostly revised that opinion after reading comments like those of Eric Kessler:
http://techland.time.com/2011/12/01/hbo-boss-to-netflix-youl...
There are unique hurdles in negotiating fair terms with every content owner simultaneously. Transaction costs are abundant, and some people just don't want to work with you.