Streaming services now provide the dominant way in which music is distributed and consumed online. Digital rights management (DRM) lies at the heart of this trend and has evolved alongside a movement from copy-based to streaming-based consumption. This shift poses a number of new and unique issues. Music streaming services have changed the nature of the product offered, with musical content becoming de-bundled and reduced to a series of permissions covered by DRM and associated licences, leaving users trapped in a permission-based system. This may create tension with copyright law principles regarding personal ownership and exhaustion of rights in relation to secondary markets, but through analysing relevant US and European case law it can be demonstrated that there is little, if any, legal opportunity for digital secondary markets to emerge. There are also further specific consequences which may affect artists relating to musical diversity and the composition of popular music and, also, consequences regarding the changing nature of the Internet itself. In this context copyright remains centrally important, but only in establishing the initial proprietary rights that enable subsequent DRM and licence-based online exploitation, indicative of a re-establishment of record industry power that is now allied to streaming platforms.

流媒体服务现在提供了在线分发和消费音乐的主要方式。数字版权管理 (DRM) 是这一趋势的核心，并且随着从基于复制到基于流媒体的消费的转变而发展。这种转变带来了许多新的和独特的问题。音乐流媒体服务改变了所提供产品的性质，音乐内容被拆分并减少为 DRM 和相关许可所涵盖的一系列权限，使用户陷入基于权限的系统中。这可能会与关于二级市场的个人所有权和权利用尽的版权法原则产生紧张关系，但通过分析相关的美国和欧洲判例法，可以证明数字二级市场几乎没有（如果有的话）出现的合法机会. 还有一些具体的后果可能会影响与音乐多样性和流行音乐创作相关的艺术家，以及与互联网本身不断变化的性质有关的后果。在这种情况下，版权仍然非常重要，但仅限于建立最初的专有权利，以支持随后的 DRM 和基于许可的在线利用，这表明现在与流媒体平台结盟的唱片业力量的重新建立。