Are music streaming services damaging or encouraging?

Although music streaming has been around for sometime now, there is still mix opinion on whether the whole concept benefits the artist/label.

The real question which should be asked is whether it benefits the fans. Fans are the basis for an artist to become successful so, in essence, pleasing the fans is the number one priority. A high number of fans believe that streaming services are damaging for their favourite artists and artists miss out on a lot of income. WRONG! Although the thought of 'if streaming services didn't exist then fans would purchase the artists songs' the reality is that if streaming services didn't exist then the fans wouldn't know about the artists songs and may not even know about the artist.

Another argument is that it's the labels fault, not the streaming services. Certain labels have various different deals with streaming services like Spotify, deals which are secret and unknown to the public, let alone the artist. So, how can artists just blame Spotify for their money losses when their label does a deal with them on the artists behalf?

Here are two varied opinions from two recording artists:

Billy Bragg
http://www.completemusicupdate.com/article/billy-bragg-enters-spotify-debate-the-labels-are-to-blame/

Thom Yorke
http://www.completemusicupdate.com/article/yorke-still-down-on-spotify-says-its-getting-in-the-way-of-direct-to-fan/