The risks of banning free streaming tiers

The music majors are negotiating with streaming music providers (Spotify) about curtailing free services. The free service could be capped:

• Max 3 months, or 6 for existing users.
• Possibly shorter or longer for selected artists.

Before banning free music altogether, one must bear in mind:

• Free users do convert to paying users.
• Free users do generate revenues: from advertising. This could possibly be extended.
• Banning free will only lead to more piracy.

YouTube is the sector's biggest player. The above goes for YouTube as well: it tries to convert users to YouTube Music Key (or Google Play Music) and it has sophisticated ad models.