The music industry is experiencing vast changes to the way listeners are acquiring their media and this is through music streaming services. Platforms such as Spotify, Rhapsody and a personal favourite, Apple Music, have exclusive deals with artists and record companies which allow them the rights to provide media to consumers for a monthly fee. This differs from the traditional model which requires consumers to pay a fee for each song that is purchased.
Rapper Drake has released exclusive media on music sharing platforms like Spotify.
What does this mean for the music industry and for its consumers?
From personal experience with Apple Music, it is an extremely powerful tool that allows consumers the ability to download a virtually unlimited amount of songs after only a fee of $10/month. And after just 10 songs, the payment has paid for itself based off of the traditional cost of songs. At the same time, music labels and artist are able to record valuable data such as the frequency that a song has been played as well as the demographic which is consuming its media.
This is an amazing effort by artists, record labels and media distributors to capture an emerging demographic of song listeners – tech-savvy youth – and thus far they have been very successful. It’s important for businesses to adapt to the changes within their industry and provide services that are appealing to its customers. In this case, it is tech-savvy youth who are familiar with apps and technology that have been strategically targeted. Other industries need to shift their focuses to accommodate the technological desires of the world for more instant and accessible services or goods.
Reference link: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/business/media/hip-hop-and-rb-fans-embrace-streaming-music-services.html?ref=business