audio

The Classical Music Market: Streaming’s Next Genre?

Jun 21, 2019 | ,

6a00d83451b36c69e20240a4b66aeb200b-250wi

Classical music has long been viewed by many as a rarified genre that stands apart from other forms of music. While there is clearly something in that, something new is happening to the classical market: streaming is opening up a new, more diverse base of fans. Many of these are finding new entry points to classical music, such as hearing piano concertos on Relaxing Piano playlists. These new audiences bring with them new expectations about what classical music listening should be like and they present a major new opportunity for the classical market.

Source: Music Industry Blog

Download the whole report

Everything You Wanted to Know About Gen Z (But Were Afraid to Ask)

Jun 21, 2019 | , ,

Think you know Generation Z? We wanted to set aside trite stereotypes about the streaming generation—yes, plenty of them have in fact seen or even own a record player—and truly get to know them on a global scale. So we commissioned our Culture Next Trends report, in partnership with research agency Culture Co-Op. We found an empowered, multinational, cross-cultural, socially aware, and informed group of 15- to 24-year-olds who speak their minds.

Source: Spotify

AI Generated Audiobooks from DeepZen

Jun 19, 2019 | , ,

Synthesized voices like those used by Siri and Alexa are fine for telling us the day’s weather forecast or how many minutes remain on a cooking timer, but would you really want their flat, monotonous tones reading you audiobooks? Probably not, which is why most of us turn to human-voiced services like Audible to get our audiobook fix. Human voice actors might not get the nod for too much longer, however, due to to the pioneering work of a London-based startup called DeepZen.

Source: Digital Trends

Must Hear TV? NBCUniversal uses “commercial innovations” to cut through the attention economy

Jun 19, 2019 | ,

p-2-nbc-universal-uses-and8220commercial-innovationsand8221-to-cut-through-the-attention-economy.jpg

At this year’s Cannes Lions, NBCUniversal presented its latest and updated offerings for brands to integrate with their global platforms, including Picture-in-Picture 2.0, connecting interactive or AR elements on one screen with a commercial on another screen; “Must Hear” TV, audio cues that play as a program fades to commercial and are meant to hold the viewer’s attention; AdSmart Context, an AI powered platform that combs through movies and TV shows to offer targeted ad options; and Shoppable TV, a feature that allows viewers to shop what they see on TV through a QR code on their mobile device.

Source: Fast Company

Anchor is Spotify’s best bet to beat Apple for control of your ears

May 11, 2019 | ,

Since officially launching in 2016, Anchor has become the number-one podcast platform in the world. The company’s mission to “democratize audio” has led it to powering more than 15% of all podcasts on the market, according to podcast analytics company Chartable. Anchor has also tripled the number of podcasts that make money through advertising since it launched Anchor Sponsorships last year. So it’s little wonder how Anchor caught Spotify’s eye.

Source: Fast Company

Skip Rates: Why The First 30 Seconds Matter More Than Ever

Mar 18, 2019 |

Skip rates can make or break a song, a record or even an artist’s career. On a practical level, royalties don’t kick in until at least 30 seconds of a song have played. But in an era where data is driving A&R and marketing decisions as well as playlists driven by algorithms, exactly how long a listeners stays engaged with a song matters more than ever.

Source: Skip Rates: Why The First 30 Seconds Matter More Than Ever – hypebot

How To Prepare For A Post-Album Music Industry 

Mar 18, 2019 |

Albums are no longer water cooler moments. What seems particularly telling for music, is that ‘Netflix and shows’ is the water cooler conversation now. Pop culture talk is all about what you’ve watched, are watching or should watch, and any similar conversation about listening is conspicuous by its absence. The ‘event album’ seems to be over. Is it just me or do artists seem to want to drop albums with less fuss now anyway? Perhaps the element of surprise (Bowie’s legacy yet again) is smarter than facing the “aftermath of promotion”. But it’s also not without risk given the tonnage of new music flowing through. Coupled with this, some artists are either eschewing the format or at the very least questioning it. If we take the world’s biggest artist right now, Ariana Grande – what role did her album play in the scheme of things?

Source: How To Prepare For A Post-Album Music Industry [Keith Jopling Of MIDiA] – hypebot

 Per Stream Rates Drop as Streaming Volume Grows. YouTube’s Value Gap is Very Real. 

Feb 8, 2019 |

The biggest takeaway by far is that YouTube’s Content ID shows a whopping 48% of all streams and only 7% of revenue. Read that again. This is your value gap. Nearly 50% of all recorded music streams only generate 7% of revenue. Apple Music and Spotify combined account for just short of 40% of all streams and 74% of all revenue.

Source: 2018 Streaming Price Bible! Per Stream Rates Drop as Streaming Volume Grows. YouTube’s Value Gap is Very Real. | The Trichordist

The economics of why Spotify wants to be like Netflix 

Feb 6, 2019 | ,

Since its founding in 2006, Spotify’s business model has been simple. It takes music owned by musicians and record labels and lets people listen to it for free interspersed with ads or without interruptions for a monthly fee. It passes along most of these revenues to the owners of the music, keeping a cut for themselves.

As Netflix and other content platforms have learned, this middle-man model is not particularly lucrative or sustainable. In Spotify’s case, the record labels have a lot of leverage because if they choose to block their content from the platform, Spotify would basically die. As a result, labels are able to extract about 75% of Spotify’s revenue.

Source: The economics of why Spotify wants to be like Netflix — Quartz

Podcasts: a Netflix Moment for Radio But Perhaps not the Future of Spotify

Feb 6, 2019 | ,

After many years stuck on the side lines, podcasts are now becoming sought after by everyone from radio companies, streaming services, newspaper publishers to TV companies and many, many more. Media brands of all forms see podcasts as a part of their future, a way to increase and diversify listening time (streaming services); fight back against streaming (radio); reach new audiences (news); and extend audience engagement (TV). To some degree podcasts can probably deliver on all those expectations, and while the creative possibilities are clear, the path ahead is not so straight forward:

Source: Podcasts: a Netflix Moment for Radio But Perhaps not the Future of Spotify | Music Industry Blog

It Looks Like SoundCloud Is Getting Healthier 

Feb 3, 2019 |

Artists and bands everywhere have been worried for a while about whether SoundCloud would change drastically in order to survive, thanks to the ever growing losses that the company was experiencing. The platform is the main window to the outside world for many indie act’s music, and for many the thought of finding a new service is daunting. It looks like you can put that worry on hold though, as the company has reported an increase of revenue by 80%, and while it’s still not profitable, the losses are dropping.

Source: It Looks Like SoundCloud Is Getting Healthier – Music 3.0 Music Industry Blog

Marshmello Just Live Streamed on Fortnite…So Just What is a Concert? 

Feb 2, 2019 | , ,

On Saturday I watched my 12 year old son scoff down his meal so that he could rush upstairs to get logged on with his friends in time for a Marshmello live streamed event on Fortnite. As you can see from the video this was Marshmello appearing as a Fortnite character, on stage with his music playing. Meanwhile Fortnite players moved around the ‘concert venue’ showing off their dance moves – all of which of course had been purchased in app with Fortnite VBucks. In-game live experiences like this are nothing new, but it may just be that we are beginning to get to a tipping point in shared gaming experiences for Gen Z that will shape their entertainment expectations for years to come. Tweens and teens are already spending more time socializing via social media than real world contact, connected gaming is adding to that mix.

Source: Marshmello Just Live Streamed on Fortnite…So Just What is a Concert? | MIDiA Research