Nice little article over at Hypebot (who are up to their necks in Midem at the moment) on some top line music market trends: according to a survey of more than 8,000 music consumers, 45% of listeners are happy to listen to an advert in order to fund a download of a track, and 41% to fund a stream of a song. Here is a run down of the stats:
8500 interviews in 13 countries
63% are passionate about music
14% would listen to music every minute of the day if they could.
Streaming a favorite delivery method for 21%
29% admit to downloading without paying
30% bought a CD in the last month
11% bought a download within the month
Video via mobile growing fastest in emerging markets
42% went to a concert last year
16% bought a concert DVD in last year
19% bought t-shirt / merch.
Many OK with listening to an ad to download (45%) and stream (41%)
Australian blogger Andrew McMillen recently hosted a panel on the digital music industry in Perth, on which sat Simon Wheeler – director of digital at Beggar’s Group, an amalgamation of some big indie labels here in the UK [they're on the same road as my old primary school ]. Mr. Wheeler has some pretty progressive and pragmatic attitudes to online promotion, and some forward thinking methods that it might be useful for artists to replicate in their own spheres.
“…we know that fans are passionate about an artist, and they’re very excited about a new album. So to be able to give them something to satiate that demand somewhat has been quite effective. There’s also the purpose of giving people a piece of music to ‘try before they buy’, if you like. We get a lot of love and a lot of coverage in the blog world, because I think our artists are very suited to that world.
We don’t give music blogs free reign, because you’d find that each blog would post a different track from the album, and so ten minutes after you’d publicised the album, people could just go and download the whole album (laughs).
So by making available one chosen, one focus track from a new album – much as you take a track to radio – there’s kind of an unwritten dialogue between us and the bloggers. We don’t tell them to post it, we don’t say they can’t post it; if people post the whole album, we’ll definitely say they can’t do that, and we’ll get it taken down. But they understand that if we post an mp3 to one of our label sites or blogs, then they won’t get any grief from us at all [if they repost it to their blog].
This really helps focus the campaign around a lead track, much as you do when taking a track to radio. There’s no new science here; this is just what the record industry has been doing for decades. We’re just applying that to the digital age.”
Making a few tracks available for streaming or download online is a great hook for pulling people into an album or gig ticket purchase – that’s one of the major reasons myspace was such a success, bands need to connect with fans these days. Blink 182′s Tom Delonge is of the same opinion: [via Hypebot, via Techdirt, via The Guitar Center]
Steve does a little Q&A session on HypeBot – repeated here:
We continue our ongoing 4QFor (Four Questions For) series with Steven Finch, the CEO of Insomnia Ltd, which owns music 2.0 start-ups www.routenote.com, www.crenk.com, www.adphilia.com, and a record label and recording studio. You can learn more about Steve’s companies here. (Read more 4QFor interviews with the heads of OurStage, Sonicbids, imeem, We7, ReverbNation, New Music Strategies and Nimbit here.)
Q1. What major changes in the music industry do you foresee over the next year?
2008 will be a very interesting year for the music industry. We will continue to see the major labels complaining about the music industry declining, when in fact it is only CD sales that are heading downwards. The distance between the major labels and independent labels will continue to get closer, thus proving in this day and age that artists don’t need a major label to succeed!
Q2. How are you and your company preparing to benefit from these changes?
We strongly believe in independent artists and labels being able to promote their music to the widest possible audience, without having to worry about barriers to market. RouteNote wants to eliminate these barriers for independent or unsigned artists, and allow good artists to stand out from the crowd.
Q3. What excites you?
The music industry as a whole really excites me. It is changing and twisting all the time and with so many emerging business models in the marketplace at present, who knows which ones will actually succeed or fail. Lots of people are talking about music heading towards ‘free’, I think this might be the case…
however I still believe users are willing to pay for something that is actually worth something. Im willing to pay for music as long as I know I can transfer it from computer to iPod to CD and back, whenever I want to and as many times as I want. A revolutionary watermarking service which tracks DRM free music is the way forward.
Q4. What’s next?
The music industry has always been based around old practices, and now it seems that it is time for new beginnings. RouteNote will enter the music market with the aim of providing artists what they want. Artists want ease of use, with the ability to profit from their achievements. RouteNote will provide this and more.
]. Mr. Wheeler has some pretty progressive and pragmatic attitudes to online promotion, and some forward thinking methods that it might be useful for artists to replicate in their own spheres.