GigaOM Pro

Startups and incumbents alike are hoping to attract paying subscribers to their mobile and desktop offerings.

If the music business's last decade was all about a transition from physical products to digital ownership of music, the current one could well be about a shift from owning song files to having access to streams via a subscription to a massive library of songs. New services are springing up to compete with incumbents, which are just beginning to break into the wireless mobile sector, and the new market for music subscriptions is taking shape. Paul Bonanos provides a closer look at the players involved, who's ahead in the market, and what to watch for in the months ahead.