A lot of key music industry figures have still yet to get their head around the digital revolution, and one of of those figures seems to be Warner Music Group chief executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. “Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry and as far as Warner Music is concerned will not be licensed,” said Bronfman this week. The announcement seemed to suggest that Warner is pulling its music from streaming services such as Spotify, Last.fm and We7.

Bronfman then appeared to strike a specific blow against Spotify, stating, “The ‘get all your music you want for free, and then maybe with a few bells and whistles we can move you to a premium price’ strategy is not the kind of approach to business that we will be supporting in the future.”

However, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek was quick to refute suggestions that this might affect Spotify. “To be clear; WMG are not pulling out of Spotify. Media is taken things out of context. So don’t worry – be happy ,” Ek Tweeted.

Make no mistake, Warner’s huge roster of talent means that no serious music streaming service can thrive without co-operation from the label. But, by the same measure, no record label can thrive without properly embracing streaming services.

What Bronfman apparently fails to understand is that the music industry has already changed, forever. Streaming and cloud-based music is the future, and labels need to learn how to make music from streaming, either directly, or by using it as a promotional tool to encourage physical sales, including merchandise and tickets.

For the time being, Warner content is still available on Spotify (with the exception of previously-removed artists such as Oasis, and missing albums such as The Betrayed by Lostprophets), and also on Last.fm. Instead of threatening to pull its music, Warner Music should concentrate on making more of its catalogue available.

And if labels aren’t prepared to embrace streaming services, then they should go back to selling MiniDiscs and cassettes and see how far that gets them.