Paul McCartney just says no to streaming

(CBS/CNET) Paul McCartney pulled his music from services such as Rhapsody, a broader move than some of the high-profile acts who have declined to license their latest releases to stream sites recently, including Coldplay, Tom Waits and Adele.

Not only has he blocked streaming services from licensing his songs, he's decided to yank his entire music collection from streaming outlets services, according to Digital Music News (Spotify has contacted CNET to say that McCartney first removed his music from that site in 2010).

A spokeswoman for Rhapsody confirmed McCartney has indeed removed his music from that service. The Beatles, it should be noted, have never made their music available on the streaming services.

Artists have recently started complaining that these sites don't pay well enough for the use of their music. Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG and others deny that, but they also argue that their services are relatively new and that their revenue and subscribers continue to grow. Pay outs to artists will also continue to increase, they claim.

That message may have started to resonate with some acts. In October, CNET broke the news that Coldplay would not make their album "Mylo Xyloto," available via streaming services.

However, according to the Rhapsody spokesperson, the album is now available for streaming.

One more note: The artists who have rejected most streaming services still seem to enjoy a good relationship with iTunes. McCartney is streaming his upcoming concert on iTunes and the Beatles iconic catalog is available there for download. Coldplay fans couldn't stream their songs from "Mylo Xyloto" when it debuted, but the album was available at iTunes.

So these music acts aren't totally anti-digital. Just selectively so.

McCartney will receive the MusiCares Person of the Year honor on Friday. Two days later, he will perform at the Grammy Awards, airing live on CBS. He released his new album, "Kisses on the Bottom," on Tuesday.

CNET's Greg Sandoval is following the McCartney streaming developments here.