Stream on Demand is a subset of Play on Demand

If content creators receive a payment for every stream, isn’t that the result of a Play on Demand license agreement?

Content creators have legally granted streaming services the right to transmit their music to subscription holders, on request, in exchange for a very small fee. While that might be confused with Play on Demand, it is not. We differentiate Stream on Demand from Play on Demand because the latter is transferable while the former is not.

When a listener plays a song on their Amazon Alexa, on their mobile phone or with Spotify in their car, it is more like dropping a dime in the jukebox than playing a record that they have purchased. Listeners don’t own anything associated with songs streamed to their devices. Like a giant jukebox, streaming music providers keep a catalog of music that listeners can request and Stream on Demand. The music is delivered to the listener’s mobile device, or what could be considered their mobile jukebox.

Play on Demand, provides listeners ownership associated with their music. Listeners purchase a Play on Demand license, in the form of an NFT, that is transferable, just like a physical recording. The NFTiPoD becomes the digital surrogate for the physical record or CD.

While this subtle distinction does not affect the financial model for streaming music providers, it will slightly alter the fulfillment model and legal relationship between musicians and streaming services. Rather than simply allowing streaming providers to transmit a particular song to any of their subscribers, on demand, the new relationship would require that providers only transmit the song to subscribers possessing its NFTiPoD license, which would require a simple validation step in the fulfillment procedure.

In essence, by retaining their Play on Demand rights, musicians can once again sell music as well as earn royalties when it is performed, as a separate Stream on Demand license, with streaming music providers.