by SHANE SINNOTT

If you wanted to view this and the last two columns in this space as a series, you could. A triumvirate, if you will, about the steady trend in online music consumption towards free, streaming-based music services. You’ll remember that Grooveshark (grooveshark.com) is the best you can get here now, and that soon Spotify (spotify.com) will arrive—a much-hyped, “iTunes killer” streaming service that’s been huge in Europe. I briefly mentioned the one monkeywrench in Spotify’s plans for U.S. domination: Warner’s announcement that they will stop licensing their music to free streaming services, taking their ball and going home just as it seemed everyone was going to start playing.

The initial announcement came a couple of weeks ago, when Warner CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. said, “Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry and as far as Warner Music is concerned, will not be licensed.”

He went on to say, “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.” Which is, basically, the opposite of what everyone else has been saying for a long time. Instead, Bronfman says, the company will be focusing on (surprise) supporting streaming services that require payment.

The reason I don’t think that’s going to work is because, well, streaming music services aren’t worth paying for. The value of streaming music, to a consumer with tons of semi- or outright illegal options, is zero. What’s worth money to people, at best, is not being bothered by ads when you’re doing it, or things like speed and reliability. Warner and the other big four need to come to terms with this sad reality. Full downloads, sure, but nobody is going to pay to stream. Until the labels can begin offering an unlimited subscription downloading service—think cable TV—they will have to settle for the current status quo: pisspoor iTunes royalties, and squeezing their artists for everything they can get.