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One of the new arrivals onto the music business scene has been the subscription
music services that offer users a rental model for a monthly fee. A good example
is the services Spotify offers. The basic service is that for a monthly fee
you can listen to as much music as you like. All majors and 1000's of independent
labels have their content with Spotify, Rhapsody, and Pandora with the hope
making some money. But although Spotify now ranks second or third highest players
to iTunes and Amazon, most musicians and labels have been disappointed by the
cheques they have received.
Why all this disappointment:
200 plays equal the price from one download: According to new figures
a track needs to be streamed about 200 times before it can receive a revenue
close to the price of one download. In reality not many songs will get 200
plays on Spotify? The point of contention is that what if a song only gets
20 plays does that mean it get practically no money? Will independent music
owners on these platforms really share any income? As a matter of fact nobody
knows. Robb McDaniels, founder and CEO of INgrooves suggests that maybe the
process of paying should be weighted differently i.e. new releases get more
money and so on. We all need to wait for these services to find better monetization
because that section of the industry is still at infancy stage.
People leaving and holding off content: As content owners (artists
and labels) try to figure out the best alternations, they find themselves holding
back their releases from the streaming services. According to Rob Wells from
the Universal Music Group who was asked by a friend whether Coldplay's decision
to withhold their release from Spotify was a good idea; his response was to
send a YouTube download link that had all the tracks of the (not yet released)
album. His point is that if viewers are listening to it on YouTube for free
why not monetize it with a streaming service. Only time will tell whether it
is a good idea to hold back some releases from the streaming services. The
issue with the independents can be slightly different because an unknown band
is unlikely to get the kind of streaming that makes financial sense so perhaps
other alternatives can be better sourced.
Big artists get played: Many had hoped that the "long
tail" predicted for
the internet will work for all products. Maybe it does but not when it comes
to popular streaming services. The figure shows that only popular artists are
getting the big plays hence the Big-Small monies too. The independents may
need to seek alternatives.
Tie up with Facebook: At the moment if you want to log into Spotify
it tells you to go through your Facebook account. Also the new Facebook 'Timeline'
that shows the music your friends are listening to on Spotify now show up and
you can also listen to the same song at that platform. Will this new service
prompt people to go and buy music or is it simply promoting the services of
the subscription service? What do you think?
In conclusion, it is better to have your content on sites that have a chance
of paying you than for people to listen to it for free with no chance of monetization.
But others may think such an action is not worth it. The choice is yours.
Boomy Tokan a Music Business Expert says there are many
ways to make money with your music and build a lasting career in the music
business but you need to have the business "Know How". Visit http://www.musicbusinesstools.com for
a free Music Business Management course Now!.
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