I use Spotify on a daily basis ever since my friend recommended it to me: it is a program which enables easy access to various music streaming services. Recently, Sharon Zhao wrote a new post in her blog regarding the revolution of the music industry: she points out that streaming and other kinds of online music may eventually ‘kill’ the music business.
Although it is true that music companies are(may) suffering from the online threats as consumers are seen to be substituting away from buying physical CDs and albums to streaming them online free of charge, however, I disagree that the music companies may be the ultimate losers in the long run. As technology and trends shift and is altered, music industries will lose profit from the physical albums: this is inevitable. However, I anticipate music companies will adjust their positions in the music industry to allow them to become ‘winners’ again. Afterall, the music companies and singers are the innovators and they are the ones creating new music for us everyday. If their business starts to suffer and they become motivated to leave the music industry, there will no longer be any music provided for us and we will become unsatisfied. Besides, music companies can earn profit through many alternative methods; for example, as technology has advanced causing concert halls to become more accessible, and consumers becoming wealthier due to improved standards of living, music companies will find that more people are willing to go to concerts on a regular basis thus they can make money out of it. A music company which makes use of this change in trend will gain from consumers once again.
On the other hand, Sharon also shares concern that most consumers are not willing to buy music even when they’re sold online. Currently, Spotify allows consumers to have a freemium account, in which they can choose to upgrade into a premium account. I think Spotify uses excellent strategies such as annoying promotions in the between sound tracks to encourage users to upgrade into premium version. According to this article, already there has been 6 million people with a premium account. thus trend shows that people are actually becoming more willing to pay for music streaming services: after-all a premium account allows them to have convenient soundtracks where they have complete control over what they want to listen to. As Spotify’s popularity increases and brilliant marketing strategies within its freemium account is used (adverts kill mood and freemium also limits listeners to ‘shuffle’/skip music ),it may be possible that the music industry will become well supported by the premium users of Spotify. Out of 5 of my friends, 2 already uses premium.
Moreover, some singers, such as Taylor Swift, chose to remove her tracks from Spotify recently in hope to gain revenue from CDs/online sales. This is another strategy music businesses could adapt to increase its profits without relying on online streaming services.
Related cites:
1. Taylor Swift’s Decision to remove her music fromn Spotify: https://news.spotify.com/uk/2014/11/03/taylor-swifts-decision/