More for less! Or in fact, more for free!
Let’s put things simply, we have been spoilt. Services from providers like YouTube and Spotify have offered us unprecedented access to content (legally) for free – completely changing our understanding of consumer demand for music content. We are now entering a new era of consumption where finding a unique, one-off record has been replaced by individuals not actually owning music, but still constantly having access to it – and while some may highlight the resurgence of vinyl as proof that there is still demand for a physical product, this is merely a niche trend when up against the monster that is online streaming.
As discussed in a previous blog article, old industries are now facing a culture of instant gratification with new, young consumers redefining pre-conceived notions to fit in with their lifestyle. It would be fair to say that Mainstream artists, labels and traditional music institutions haven’t been quite as embracing to this type of consumption shift. Both Taylor Swift and Dr Dre have opted to pull all their music from Spotify, deciding that Apple Music (who Dre has a partnership with anyway) was better suited to paying musicians a ‘fair’ price for their product – and if anyone remembers the Swift case, even that wasn’t plain sailing.
In many ways the only key issues that the music industry has with online streaming is value. As soon as illegal downloads became popular music in many ways became valueless, and its this that artists and labels want to change. But could only streaming actually be driving the industry forward, giving value back to music?
Changing the Discovery Phase
Despite trepidation of online streaming coming from mainstream music providers, the underground and indie scene has actually found online streaming to be highly beneficial, giving artists a way to grow their presence and reach a wider, global audience – and subsequently gaining some financial success (alongside their merchandise sales and live performances).
Mashable recently explored this phenomenon, describing how the Australian music industry was transforming as indie and niche bands find themselves featured on online radio stations and user playlists. With many of these bands rapidly increasing in popularity, we are witnessing a development in the discovery phase of our consumer journey, with our habits shaped by what other listeners suggest we’d like.
But more than that, channels like Spotify are also using complex algorithms to measure and analyse are listening habits, providing us with instant satisfaction and a tailored experience that is shaped to their individual tastes. In this instance music is given a greater chance to be organically discovered.
How Online Streaming can be Appreciated
As young, emerging artists look to experiment with the ways in which they produce, release and promote their content, traditional music institutions are having to revisit and adapt their model to welcome this new generation.
Take for instance the Grammy’s, who recently announced that they would now accept music even if it had only been released in streaming form (no downloads or physical format). While for most this will make little change to their chances of being nominated, some will find new opportunities in being recognized by their peers – most notably Chance the Rapper, who made history by becoming the first streaming-only release to be on the Billboard album chart.
Most importantly about this change is even the most traditional of institutions recognizes the importance of online streaming to consumers and music fans, and rather than dealing with controversy (as they have previously faced) are now accommodating to the new digital generation.
What’s Next
As it stands, Netflix has more than 44 million subscribers in 41 countries (33M of which are in the US). So how has Netflix been able to successfully create a paid-for subscription service?
Increasingly this is what the music industry is asking, with services looking to copy (or at the very least be inspired by) the Netflix-model as a way to enhance their chances of generating better revenue. Key to Netflix is their 30 day free trial, which they use as a way to rope in customers and wow them with quality, unique content. Two notable examples of music services that follow this same format is Apple Music and Tidal, who while being founded as a paid-for service, still use trials as a way to entice consumers (both channels even have their own, unique content).
And in many ways it does seem that Netflix is normalising paying for digital content. For instance, as of March 2016, Spotify had 30 million paying subscribers worldwide. So whilst we’ve previously been gifted free online streaming, the benefits of paying appear to be slowly emerging. The only question now is, are we all ready to start paying for music again?
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