I think that ultimately, the difference is probably radio.
Before the internet, people consumed music without buying it all the time. People consumed movies first solely at theaters, then at home from VHS and DVD. Some movies came to TV occasionally, but it was never a guarantee for any given title.
So there was already a centralized way to pay record labels for music, and the basic idea of licensing it all to be played in a streaming format was well-established.
The movie industry, on the other hand, still wants to make you pay every time you watch, like back when it was still just theaters.
I tend to agree but it probably went even beyond radio. Playing music has long been omnipresent in all sorts of venues and, as a result, there was a clear need for simple, low friction, centralized licensing.
Pre-VHS, as you say, there just wasn't the same casual consumption of video content--and, even then, it was mostly private consumption for a long time.
You even see differences between music and live theatre licensing. Music has mandatory mechanical licenses for cover. Whereas, with live theatre, a playwrite/copyright owner can refuse to allow a performance based on their work.
I think it might be because of the ubiquity of music piracy during the 90's. In it's heyday, you could get anything off of Limewire, Kazaa, and of course Napster with extremely little effort.
By contrast, pirating video didn't come until later, when it was more technically feasible (downloading music over a modem already took forever, can you imagine downloading full length movies!?) and by that time, the likes of Spotify had already made legally consuming music so convenient as to make piracy obsolete.
Even now, the pirating of PC games is being made more common by the introduction of the Epic Store, which, regardless of your feelings on it, has added friction. Games promised to Steam users are being delayed or going full Epic exclusive and many users are saying "fuck that, we're not getting railroaded into using a launcher we didn't like" and turning to piracy instead.
The video landscape is even worse, where it used to be only a select few providers had their own bespoke services (like HBO) now every channel is looking to make their own damn subscription happen, which is adding tons of friction, causing the boom in piracy.
The music companies learned, and the video companies haven't, that the main way to counter piracy is to make the legal way to get something as easy as possible, so easy that customers don't mind parting with some cash. And streaming right now is anything but easy.
Have to agree... I can only handle so many paper cuts from the subscription fees... I have Hulu (+Live + DVR), Amazon, Netflix and now Disney+, and even then pushing it. I'm at a point with the DVR crap on Hulu blocking commercial skips for most prime time shows that I've gone back down downloading half of them... I've also considered dropping Amazon. Netflix pisses me off and Disney+ so far only the Mandelorian makes it anything resembling worth it.
If it weren't for the Fiance / Kid factor, I'd have already gotten rid of them all... I don't like having to jump between all the apps/services to watch something... it was easier to once a day, hit the torrent site, download new episodes of whatever and start watching shows from the day before. Trying to remember what service has Show X, or whatever is a PITA.
Hulu's model is about as close as I've seen and Amazon has similar for more bundles. I'd much rather if I could just integrate Disney into the Hulu or Amazon Prime UI and search. Netflix will probably never allow such a thing.
> Even now, the pirating of PC games is being made more common by the introduction of the Epic Store, which, regardless of your feelings on it, has added friction. Games promised to Steam users are being delayed or going full Epic exclusive and many users are saying "fuck that, we're not getting railroaded into using a launcher we didn't like" and turning to piracy instead.
A lot of people said that about Steam and yet it became what it is today, with many titles that now require Steam (unless you pirate).
Limewire and kazaa came out in 2000 and 2001 respectively, by which point many people were on some kind of broadband. One of the main benefits of limewire was that it wasn't limited to music but had a wide variety of available video and software as well.
Before the internet, people consumed music without buying it all the time. People consumed movies first solely at theaters, then at home from VHS and DVD. Some movies came to TV occasionally, but it was never a guarantee for any given title.
So there was already a centralized way to pay record labels for music, and the basic idea of licensing it all to be played in a streaming format was well-established.
The movie industry, on the other hand, still wants to make you pay every time you watch, like back when it was still just theaters.