The wait is finally over.
After fans streamed the 1975 hit “Wish You Were Here” more than one million times, longtime holdout Pink Floyd announced this week that their entire catalog of music would be available to fans on the online music-streaming service Spotify.
While Pink Floyd’s announcement did not make as big of a headline as the Bonnaroo Arts and Music Festival or Kanye West has in recent weeks, its importance cannot be underestimated.
As music listening further shifts toward the digital realm, Pink Floyd’s decision to release their entire catalog for free on Spotify will likely prove to be both wise and beneficial.
It comes as no shock that the illegal downloading of music has ravaged the music industry in recent years.
A reflection of the times, illegal downloading has its root in the failed, ego-centrist belief that almost everything in the world, like music, should be free.
For years, artists and record companies have missed out on compensation that rightfully belonged to them.
File sharing websites, however popular, are partly responsible for declining music sales in the last decade.
According to the Texas-based Institute for Policy Innovation, audio music piracy has resulted in more than $12 billion in lost revenues for the U.S. music industry.
As general belief about audio piracy changes and more people seek to listen to their music legally, music-streaming sites like Spotify are saving a once crippled industry.
For the first time in a while, artists and fans have something to cheer about.
With Spotify, artists can be financially compensated for their services and fans can listen to artists’ music in a free and legal environment.
With Spotify’s announcement, new legions of fans that use only the Internet to listen to music will be introduced to one of rock’s most influential rock bands.
Everything in Pink Floyd’s catalog, from their miraculous debut album — “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” to their final album, “The Division Bell” — is now available to the public.
Instead of listening to over-produced, over-saturated pop music, young people will have the opportunity to listen to one of the bestselling albums of all time, “The Dark Side of the Moon.”
Why is Pink Floyd’s agreement with Spotify such a big deal?
Pink Floyd’s decision matters because it allows one of the world’s most influential bands to finally have their voices heard in an environment that hasn’t been too inviting in years past.
Victims of technology, bands like Pink Floyd have been hurt by not growing up in the digital age.
Artists like Pink Floyd have had to transfer their content from analog to digital while at the same time trying to make their music relevant.
Finally, Pink Floyd has adapted to the times.
The true test will be whether Pink Floyd’s announcement reignites a classic rock revolution.
God knows we could use one.
Shane Newell is a junior journalism major and the opinions editor of the Daily 49er.