After years of declining sales, the
music industry has seen revenue increases the past two years. Do you think the
industry has finally found a way to adapt to the changes in ways people consume
music? Do you think that sales will continue to increase, flatten, or decline
in the coming years? Limit: 6 responses
The evolution of the music industry has been one of ups and downs. One of the biggest downs for the industry of course being the Napster era. That being said, in the past few years we’ve seen the music industry rise from the ashes, specifically monetarily. However there is still the question of how permanent this change is and if the music industry is finally out of its post-Napster slump and adjusted to the new music streaming era we live in.
ReplyDeleteThe short answer I would give is yes. To me it seems recently it seems as if the music industry and streaming services have finally found some equilibrium in working together and working in general. Looking at one specific streaming service we see that Pandora recently saw a 25 per cent subscriber growth. This information coming from Colin Stutz at Billboard from the article Pandora Reports $395M in Q4 2017 Earnings, 25 Percent Subscriber Growth. This is significant growth especially for them because in the streaming arena they were perhaps the underdogs. What this growth says to me is that music streaming services are becoming so healthy and main stream that even Pandora can keep up.
Another sign of the times is perhaps how well Spotify is doing. According to the New York Times article by Ben Sisario titled After Driving Streaming Music’s Rise, Spotify Aims to Cash In. With this article we see that with their 157 million global users the Swedish based music streaming site will being trading on the NYSE soon, and people are guessing the company could exceed a value of $20 billion there. This is certainly sign that Spotify is not only holding its own but doing rather well.
However, with this all in mind it is important to point out that just because the music industry is doing well now, especially in terms of its relationships with streaming services, that doesn’t mean that this is going to last. The fact of the matter is that the music industry is still changing and in light of that more problems could arise, it’s just a matter of time. Looking at the BillboardBiz article by Jordan Bromley titled The Future of the Streaming Economy: 5 Things to Watch. We see in this article Bromley comments not only on streaming but also on the music industry as a whole, for instance we see that he predicts ‘singles only’ and while this makes some sense at face value, because more and more people do not listen to whole albums, this could also create some problems for them music industry that they haven’t quiet addressed yet. For instance if you’re putting out less music then you’re making less money and that’s just how it is. Secondly if you’re not putting out whole albums you’re not leaving the potential for sleeper hits or other songs to get randomly popular which is very limiting in general. Plus, generally there are still people who like whole albums (myself being one of those people).
Works Cited:
Bromley, Jordan. “The Future of the Streaming Economy: 5 Things to Watch (Guest Column).” Billboard, 23 Jan. 2018, www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/record-labels/8095808/the-future-of-the-streaming-economy-5-things-to-watch-guest.
Sisario, Ben. “After Driving Streaming Music's Rise, Spotify Aims to Cash In.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 31 Mar. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/31/business/media/spotify-streaming-music.html.
Stutz, Colin. “Pandora Reports $395M in Q4 2017 Earnings, 25 Percent Subscriber Growth.” Billboard, Billboard, 21 Feb. 2018, www.billboard.com/articles/business/8213901/pandora-395m-q4-2017-earnings-25-percent-subscriber-growth.
In years past, we have seen a major shift in the music industry. Generations have been moving from physical album copies to online streaming of music. Initially, this seemed to be the downfall of the music industry. With the evolution of YouTube to MP3 downloaders, Napster, etc., listeners were able to access tons of music without the drop of a dime. Given that the music industry has now had years to adapt to this shift in consumption, I do believe that they have found a common medium to making sales off on online streaming.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Hollywood Reporter, “after a period of decline for physical sales, the past few years have seen streaming music services pump billions back into circulation (with $7.7 billion in total revenue in 2016, according to the Recording Industry Association of America)” (Cullins 2018). Music subscriptions are on the rise with more platforms entering the game. After realizing that physical sales were no longer bringing in the revenue they needed, more and more artists began publishing their music to different streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. “Streaming is definitely leading the drive, and, specifically, paid subscriptions, as this category brings in a substantially higher ratio of revenue per user compared to its ad-based counterpart” (Cullin 2018). In fact, streaming was 51 percent of the business in the U.S. in 2016 and has only continued to grow.
Since we are in the prime era of streaming, I think that we will see a slight increase in sales, but more or else I think they will begin to steady come 2019. Apple Music truly changed the game for music streaming because it does not cause for additional app downloads. With iTunes being one of the early pioneers of music downloads, Apple Music allows users to stay “in-house,” keeping all of their music in one shared space.
One thing that we have neglected to pay attention to is the resurgence of vinyl. Vinyl records have seen a trend upward in recent years, bringing a spike in sales of physical music. According to the Record Industry Association of America, “digital downloads fell 25-percent to 1.3 billion last year. This makes it the first time since 2011 that physical music sales have surpassed digital downloads. The report says that digital downloads have posted double-digit declines for three consecutive years. Streaming music services such as Spotify or Apple Music are still holding the majority of sales at 65%” (Joseph 2018). While streaming platforms still reign supreme, I do think it is important to note this trend and keep tabs on it for the future.
In the future, I do expect to see different streaming services battling it out for the top spot. Recently we have seen Pandora, one of the more popular platforms, take a huge hit with the rise of Apple Music. We are also expected to see YouTube launch a streaming platform of its own within in the next year. The company announced last year that it had reached “1.5 billion monthly viewers, struck deals with Sony, Warner and Universal last year, as well as a number of indies, ahead of its plans to re-engage in a subscription-based streaming market dominated by Spotify (71 million paid subscribers) and Apple Music (38 million paid subscribers)” (Rys 2018). I believe that this addition to the streaming realm with help further increase sales, but unfortunately not by much. Since so many users are already committed to one subscription, I think it will be slightly difficult for YouTube to gain a following.
Overall, I think that the music industry has certainly learned to adapt to these changes and will continue to see growth in the future.
Works Cited
DeleteCullins, Ashley. “Music Experts Discuss Why the Internet Is Now Saving the Recording Industry.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Jan. 2018, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-experts-discuss-why-internet-is-saving-recording-industry-1078058.
Joseph, Spencer. “Physical Music Sales Surpass Digital Downloads of Music in 2017.” KHSL News, 29 Mar. 2018, www.actionnewsnow.com/content/news/478359643.html.
Rys, Dan. “Lyor Cohen Says We're Entering 'Golden Era of the Music Business' in Career-Spanning SXSW Keynote.” Billboard, 14 Mar. 2018, www.billboard.com/articles/events/sxsw/8247169/lyor-cohen-sxsw-2018-keynote-youtube-def-jam-simmons.
The music industry’s decline has been talked to death over the last decade or so but it has seen a resurgence as of late thanks in part to streaming platforms that are garnering some of the largest user bases in the media industry. Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and some others are leading the way to bring music back to the economic juggernaut it once was. The CEO of Spotify likes to think his company is primarily to thank for this, “Now, finally, after years and years of decline, music is growing again, streaming is behind the growth in music, and Spotify is behind the growth in streaming” (Hassan). On one hand I agree with him for the fact that Spotify is the platform that made music streaming explode, forcing Apple to get into the game as Pandora lagged behind. However, it is definitely a flawed statement as Spotify isn’t exactly perfect nor is it solely responsible for helping save the industry. The main reason is Spotify is one the lower end in regards to how much they pay artists compared to Apple Music but with a much larger user base. The major question I see facing the streaming and music industry is how long major artists will be satisfied with the way Spotify and Apple Music are operating. Apple Music may pay more per stream but it is still a fraction of a penny. The big question becomes what is fair? How can we accurately quantify what a single stream is worth to an artist?
ReplyDeleteThe future is clearly in streaming and the move to digital so in my opinion streaming is here to stay but it remains to be seen how revenue across the industry will continue to trend. I think in the short term we will see things stay about where they are as the battle over the top streaming service continues and artists and labels fight over what a stream is worth. In the long term however I think the music industry will continue to grow. One unique thing about the music industry is that, “More than 80 percent of music’s revenues are derived from digital sources like streaming and downloads. Which, I’ll do a shameless plug, is more than any other major media industry. Music is leading the transition to digital” (Cullins). The talk is about how streaming is the future of the music industry but it is clearly the present as well. Digital has taken some hits recently but if you follow billboard numbers for new releases and look at sales vs. pure sales (pure sales is everything except streaming) many new, young artists have a much smaller percentage of pure sales compared to streaming. My only fear is that Spotify and Apple Music are going to struggle to break into countries that haven’t adopted streaming yet. One such example is, “Spotify launched in Japan in Sep. 2016, sensing an untapped opportunity to conquer the world’s second-largest recorded music market -- but the company has attracted only around 200,000 paying subscribers in that country to date” (Hu). Digital and streaming will be the standard in the coming years but there are certainly enough hurdles for the music industry to jump that revenues down the road could be less than what they hope for.
Cullins, Ashley. “Music Experts Discuss Why the Internet Is Now Saving the Recording Industry.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Jan. 2018, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-experts-discuss-why-internet-is-saving-recording-industry-1078058.
Hassan, Charlotte. “Spotify CEO Claims the Music Industry Would Be Dead Without Spotify.” Digital Music News, 26 Feb. 2016, www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/02/17/71963/.
Hu, Cherie. “Why Music Streaming's Greatest Hopes Are Spotify's Toughest Challenges.” Billboard, Billboard, 8 Mar. 2018, www.billboard.com/articles/business/8231963/spotify-biggest-challenges-music-streaming-greatest-hopes.
The bass isn’t the only thing that’s booming in the music industry. Between 2016 and 2017, total consumption of music went up 12.5%. Total Consumption of audio is at the forefront of this jump, with a 43.0% increase between 2016 and 2017 (Nielsen). It seems that after taking a big hit because of illegal online downloads, the industry has successfully adapted, and is bouncing back (Cullins).
ReplyDeleteAccording to music expert Dina LaPolt, “Streaming is definitely leading the drive, and, specifically, paid subscriptions, as this category brings in a substantially higher ratio of revenue per user compared to its ad-based counterpart. In fact, the only thing holding back streaming from restoring the music business to its former self are ad-supported services like YouTube that pay creators pennies on the dollar compared to the amount of revenue they take in.” (Cullins)
This could be very advantageous to streaming companies and to artists who could very easily pull their videos off of YouTube in favor of the payout that comes with selling to companies like Spotify. The Music Modernization Act of 2017 was a big step in the right direction as it will reform how artists are paid for use on streaming services (Cullins). While monetization does remain a problem, Spotify and other services have been a tentative solution.
In the meantime, this world of streaming has opened up a world of more singles. More singles means a growth in the industries of music discovery, marketing, and promotion (Bromley). As the search for mega stars and mega hits is becoming less of a priority, smaller labels and artists are popping up, and taking advantage of the long tail which eventually grows in any streaming entertainment economy (Bromley).
Stream-ripping has also been a challenge to the industry (Cullins), but one would assume that while subscription streaming services offer free versions with advertisements similar to radio, that this will eventually die out as access to illegal free music is becoming more cumbersome in comparison to listening to tailored “radio” stations.
Considering the climate of the market, I believe the music industry will keep trending upward. With the rise of smart speakers and the possibility of future developments of the smart home, the music industry has the potential to skyrocket.
In the U.K. specifically, streaming services account for 15% of music listening according to audiencenet. Meanwhile, YouTube accounted for 9%, and radio accounted for 52%. (Dredge) What this shows is that there is a large chunk of music consumers who do not actively seek out specific music, but rather passively listen to music. If smart speaker and streaming companies can smooth out voice recognition and selection issues, then radio style streaming of music on smart speakers would be primed to take off. (Dredge)
Works Cited
“2017 U.S. Music Year-End Report.” Nielsen, www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2018/2017-music-us-year-end-report.html.
Bromley, Jordan. "The Future of the Streaming Economy: 5 Things to Watch," Billboard 23 Jan. 2018. Web.
Cullins, Ashley. "Music Experts Discuss Why the Internet Is Now Saving the Recording Industry," The Hollywood Reporter 27 Jan. 2018. Web.
Dredge, Stuart. “What Do Smart Speakers and Voice Assistants REALLY Mean for Music?”Music Ally, 3 Jan. 2018
The music industry has seen an increase in sales in recent years, as it has finally adapted to the changes in music consumption. Music streaming is the hottest trend within our society, as there is an increasing demand for immediate access to a wide variety of music. Streaming sites such as Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music have seen stark increases in subscriptions, as more people become enthused by the idea of constant streaming of music. Most consumers find that paying a monthly fee is worth consistent access to any and all types of music on multiple devices. In an interview with some of the top music lawyers, Donald Passman states, “The heartbeat is getting stronger. It's all due to streaming, which is finally taking off. Streaming was 51 percent of the business in the U.S. in 2016. In time the revenue will grow exponentially. How long that takes depends on how quickly people continue to adopt the technology”(Passman). This prediction is based on the growing popularity of music streaming in our society. The ability to gain access to any music genre at any time accounts for subscription loyalties from consumers. This has also allowed artists to focus on songs, rather than albums as a whole, which allows for more diversity within albums, and ultimately, more popularity for singular songs.
ReplyDeleteIn the article Music streaming hailed as industry's saviour as labels enjoy profit surge, the idea of digital music is described as the saving grace of the music industry. Hannah Ellis Peterson writes, “There are 90 million people signed up to streaming services worldwide and the shift, and the aggressive speed at which it has taken place, is having the greatest impact on music since digital downloads were introduced”(Ellis-Peterson). Having such demand worldwide for these services has major implications for the music industry now and in the future. There is no doubt that these sales will continue to increase, as more people adapt to the digital age of music.
Additionally, Pandora is seeking new features to further revolutionize the industry. Colin Stutz discusses Pandora’s tentative plans in the billboard article Pandora Reports $395M in Q4 2017 Earnings, 25 Percent Subscriber Growth. After speaking with investors, he writes, “He also discussed plans to integrate podcasts to the service, calling it a "natural first step" in expanding beyond music "because of Pandora’s ability to address the biggest headwinds to Podcast growth: discoverability and monetization. Our strengths in these areas combined with our advertising scale provide us the ability to bring podcasts to market in a way no one else has to-date,"(Lynch). The music streaming services continue to rake in profits with growing subscriptions, and if they end up creating and adding new features, such as podcasts, they stand to see further growth and success within the industry.
Cullins, Ashley. "Music Experts Discuss Why the Internet Is Now Saving the Recording Industry," The Hollywood Reporter 27 Jan. 2018. Web.
Ellis-Petersen, Hannah. “Music Streaming Hailed as Industry's Saviour as Labels Enjoy Profit Surge.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 29 Dec. 2016
Stutz, Colin. "Pandora Reports $395M in Q4 2017 Earnings, 25 Percent Subscriber Growth," Billboard 21 Feb. 2018. Web.
The music industry has experienced many ups and downs especially once the numbers are crunched. I remember being excited going into Strawberry’s to get some new cd’s with my sister and her friends. It was a cd store that is now a Weight Watchers. It went out of business because people don’t buy cds anymore. They buy albums online or get them for free on Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. People can still buy cds at Target or Amazon but people are lazy and people want things immediately. I am typing this as I currently listen to The Weeknd’s new album on Spotify. I didn’t have to drive to Target and even better, I didn’t have to pay.
ReplyDeleteI think the music industry has found a way to adapt to a changing society. People consume music with their phones and laptops. At one point in time, the best way was to go onto iTunes and buy a song for $0.99, but they have since adapted. That being said, I think in the near future, another way to consume music will be available and the industry will need to adapt yet again. Technology is always changing and successful businesses need to change with them.
The music industry struggled to adapt to new technology when the shift began. The Senior Vice President of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has claimed, “It’s still a fragile recovery, but we’re cautiously optimistic this trend will continue as more and more fans discover these types of services that give you instant access to virtually any song or album. We’re nowhere near where we were at industry peak in the late ‘90s, but it’s still an exciting time that gives us reasons to be hopeful” (Cullins). The RIAA acknowledges that streaming has taken the world by storm. There is hope that the industry will be as successful one day as it once was. I’m not sure how that could be true if everyone gets their music for free online. I also wonder how streaming services will market their services to people and countries who are against streaming. Perhaps they are avoiding it because they are thinking of Napster and LimeWire, companies that did not make the cut. According to The Music Development Agency, it doesn’t matter. Even if people have free subscriptions, artists will get paid for their music being streamed. “Whether or not you’re paying a subscription fee or not, the streaming site is making money – and so are the artists. Therefore, the more subscribers there are, the more money the whole music industry will earn (Butchart).
All this being said about the changing music industry is great but an artist’s wealth would be nothing without live performances. Streaming Beyoncé’s music on Pandora or Spotify only gives her so much especially once free subscriptions are taken into effect. According to The Weeknd in a Forbes article, "artists don't really make the money off the music like we did in the Golden Age. It's not really coming in until you hit the stage" (Greenberg).
I think the music industry will continue to change but artists won’t ever be in trouble as long as they generate ticket sales. That’s where they get the most money—it’s certainly not on streaming sites where people listen for free with an occasional advertisement every thirty minutes.
Butchart, Adam. "How Music Streaming Has Changed The Music Industry." The Music Development Agency,
10 Oct. 2017, themusicdevelopmentagency.com/music-streaming-changed-music-industry/. Accessed 3
Apr. 2018.
Cullins, Ashley. "Music Experts Discuss Why the Internet Is Now Saving the Recording Industry," The Hollywood Reporter 27 Jan. 2018. Web.
Greenberg, Zach O'Malley, "The World's Highest-Paid Musicians Of 2017," Forbes 6 Dec. 2017. Web.
I do not see any reason for the upward trend in music sales to do anything but continue. From a consumer’s standpoint there really isn’t a better medium for gaining access to music than via streaming services, which account for the majority of sales. This is shown in the numbers; as Ashley Cullins writes in her Hollywood Reporter article ‘Music Experts Discuss Why the Internet Is Now Saving the Recording Industry’, “the past few years have seen streaming music services pump billions back into circulation (with $7.7 billion in total revenue in 2016, according to the Recording Industry Association of America).” She backs up the role that streaming has in the uptick in total revenue referencing Music Lawyer, Donald Passman, as he states, “It's all due to streaming, which is finally taking off. Streaming was 51 percent of the business in the U.S. in 2016.”
ReplyDeleteFor the consumer it simply makes more sense to stream than to do anything else. Why would I buy an album off of iTunes if it will cost me the same amount of money to have access to more music than I could ever listen to for an entire month at the same price? The more impressive feat of streaming services might not even be its advantages over its legal competitors, but the fact that streaming often makes more sense than even pirating music. File sharing cites or ripping audio from YouTube videos can be more dangerous for computers and more time intensive than streaming. If I want to listen to Jay Z’s new album all I have to do is type in his name and I have access to it and can download it to my phone so I don’t even need cell service to hear 4:44.
With music distribution shifting away from the shipping of CDs and records to stores or, even the costly nature of purchasing each individual album, artists are able to supply their records to a gigantic audience. In ‘The Future of the Streaming Economy: 5 Things to Watch’ by Jordan Bromley he explains this phenomena stating: “Streaming has opened up the ROW. If you are familiar with record deals, that stands for "Rest of World," an area covering billions of people, all with cell phones, all who listen to music. That means new markets in Africa, MENA, Korea, India and beyond.”
Music is also being consumed at greater rates than ever before. As is reported on Digital Music News’ website, “In BuzzAngle’s Mid-Year 2017, overall music consumption grew 9.9% over last year.” So with the new system for music consumption we see that there is a greater access to music than ever. Even if music is being ‘purchased’ less there is a greater opportunity now more so than ever for an artist to make money off of their music. The growing ability for artists to monetize music is why the music industry will continue to trend upwards.
Bromley, J. (2018). The Future of the Streaming Economy: 5 Things to Watch (Guest Column). [online] Billboard. Available at: https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/record-labels/8095808/the-future-of-the-streaming-economy-5-things-to-watch-guest [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].
Digital Music News. (2018). Everything You Need to Know About Music Sales in 2017. [online] Available at: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/07/05/buzzangle-music-sales-2017/ [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].
Cullins, A. (2018). Music Experts Discuss Why the Internet Is Now Saving the Recording Industry. [online] The Hollywood Reporter. Available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-experts-discuss-why-internet-is-saving-recording-industry-1078058 [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].
These past few years, we have seen a significant shift in the music industry in regards to music sales. Purchasing physical albums/CD's is seen as something of the past downloading the album on your selected streaming service whether that is Apple Music, Spotify, or even Tidal is the current trend. When the industry first made this transition from physical copies to streams/downloads, it encountered a downfall. I believe the start of this shift emerged years ago when many people began utilizing sites to convert YouTube links into MP3 downloads, Napster was founded, and iTunes was your main source for purchasing music; these applications allowed consumers to access any and every song they desired, instantly. Now that the music industry has adapted to the shift in how sales are consumed within the industry, I do think that they have found common ground when it comes to generating sales and revenue from streaming.
ReplyDeleteAshley Cullins from the Hollywood Reporter stated, “The internet killed the music industry in the 2000s but now appears to be bringing it back to life. After a period of decline in physical sales, the past few years have seen streaming music services pump billions back into circulation, with $7.7 billion in total revenue in 2016” (Cullin 2018). As I mentioned earlier, streaming services to music providers such as Apple Music, Spotify, or Tidal are the most common way to receive music today. Subscriptions to streaming services continue to rise, and the amount of providers continues to grow every day. Once artist realized that consumers no longer cared to purchase a physical album, many of artists began making their music available on streaming services such as the ones I’ve mentioned. Cullin stated, “More than 80 percent of music’s revenues are derived from digital sources like streaming and downloads. Which, I’ll do a shameless plug, is more than any other major media industry. Music is leading the transition to digital” (Cullin 2018).
With this being such an impactful time for streaming, I think that it will soon reach a point where it will begin to plateau. Streaming has changed the industry of music, causing higher-ups within the industry to reevaluate the importance of streams/downloads and how they relate to how successful an artist is/can be. Perhaps the most successful streaming services are Apple Music and Spotify. Matthew Field from the Telegraph stated, “Spotify now has 70 million subscribers as of 2018 and 30 million songs available. Apple Music lags behind with around half that, but it does feature more songs thanks to Apple's history with iTunes, numbering around 45 million” (Field 2018). Personally, I have used both streaming services for a significant amount of time (Spotify since high school and Apple Music since its launch in 2015) and prefer Apple Music. Though Spotify has special contracts with a certain artist that Apple Music does not (ex: Chance the Rappers mixtapes) I think Apple Music's streamer is more efficiently functioning.
As it stands now, streaming services are reigning supreme in the music industry. According to Jordan Bromley, “: Streaming services currently take roughly 30 percent of the gross income earned from streaming music for overhead” (Bromley). Because they are in such high demand right, their percentage can be this high; however, I don’t foresee it remaining at this percentage for much longer.
Overall, I think streaming services will continue to increase sales for a few years, but will eventually plateau. They are still somewhat new and establishing their place within the music industry. The music industry is, in fact, adapting to streaming services, however, there are still so many more adaptations that can be made to continue the success of streaming.
Works Cited
DeleteBromley, Jordan. "The Future of the Streaming Economy: 5 Things to Watch," Billboard 23 Jan. 2018. Web.
https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/record-labels/8095808/the-future-of-the-streaming-economy-5-things-to-watch-guests
Cullins, Ashley. “Music Experts Discuss Why the Internet Is Now Saving the Recording Industry.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Jan. 2018, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-experts-discuss-why-internet-is-saving-recording-industry-1078058.
Field, Matthew. "The Best Music Streaming Services: Apple Music, Spotify And Amazon Music Compared." The Telegraph. N.p., 2018. Web. 3 Apr. 2018.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/best-music-streaming-services-apple-music-spotify-amazon-music/
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhile the music industry has only now began to find its footing online after its near destruction at the hands of illegal music downloading programs, it still must remain vigilant as streaming platforms shift their business models and companies like Nielsen start to change how they quantify stream counts. Nonetheless, the music industry is, for the first time in a while, on the up. “The surge in music streaming continued throughout 2017. Overall consumption of albums, songs and audio on-demand streaming grew 12.5% year over year. A 59% increase in on-demand audio streams offset track and album sales declines.”(Nielsen) As advertising revenued declined for music streaming service Pandora, a great new influx of subscribers would ultimately keep them afloat. As Colin Stutz writes for Billboard Magazine, Pandora released its 2017 fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday (Feb. 21) reporting $395.3 million in revenue -- marking 7 percent growth year-over-year for the streaming service, excluding Australia, New Zealand and Ticketfly.”(Stutz) Pandora CEO Roger Lynch “emphasized how the dominant ad-supported service can form a cohesive strategy working in tandem with the paid subscription base, building the two parts up together.”(Stutz)
ReplyDeleteSo, how did streaming services reach these great new heights in 2018. As Jordan Bromley writes for Billboard Magazine, it comes down to a new list of factors that we couldn’t anticipate a decade back. Bromley writes how small, independent labels can move with high financial mobility and start up very fast as they search for hits, which are powered by the release of singles, also something that Bromley mentions: “Releasing the "single" is a more flexible way to market and promote an act. Instead of releasing 10 songs at once, losing nine to the whirlwind of attention-deficit disorder musical consumption, acts are firing off one by one, creating small ripples which can sometimes grow into tidal waves.”(Bromley) The financial mobility and fluidity of smaller labels is expounded upon when he writes, “Small labels are starting to win by offering profit split deals with a low product delivery commitment, which brings a lower production, marketing and promotion commitment. Labels can pop up with little money, find a hit and run with it.”(Bromley).
However, it is my belief that artists of all kinds, whether that be film, TV, or music, will have to wear multiple hats and divest their skills across many fields as art becomes easier to access and less commodified. Youtube provides, by far, the highest pay-per-play monetization of any major streaming service. This includes Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and least of all Soundcloud. The current paradigm that governs the spread of art and creative culture in the Internet Age is not financial access or artistic prowess but how effectively you can interact with and essentially manipulate a platform. Also, a multitude of musical artists have already began abusing new streaming quantifiers set up by the RIAA by overloading their albums with filler tracks to harvest more streams, which encourages violating artistic integrity as it currently stands for the mainstream music industry.
Bromley, Jordan. "The Future of the Streaming Economy: 5 Things to Watch," Billboard 23 Jan. 2018. Web.
https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/record-labels/8095808/the-future-of-the-streaming-economy-5-things-to-watch-guests
Stutz, Colin. "Pandora Reports $395M in Q4 2017 Earnings, 25 Percent Subscriber Growth," Billboard 21 Feb. 2018. Web.
“2017 U.S. Music Year-End Report.” Nielsen, www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2018/2017-music-us-year-end-report.html.