I saw a fantastic show on Australia's ABC News 24 recently. The show is called News Exchange and it is on Friday nights at 8pm. It combines news and current affairs with social media and online activity to present stories on current issues as they are experienced and communicated in both real space and the online world. The most recent show provided a detailed discussion about online activism with a number of recent international campaigns highlighted and interesting interviews from a representative from YouTube and an academic from the University of Queensland. It is well worth a look, and a show I will certainly try to watch again in the future. You can view it here.
Looking through their archives, it seams they had a show in November 2012 where they considered streaming music and whether this is a viable business model - check out the show here. They also briefly mention the internet blackout in Syria, and Bradly Manning.
Further Information
ABC News 24, News Exchange (25 January 2013) < http://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/news-exchange/ > at 25 January 2013
Showing posts with label Streaming Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Streaming Music. Show all posts
Friday, January 25, 2013
Monday, September 10, 2012
Streaming Music: Hard to Make a Profit
Just came across this interesting post from Statista and a story that covers the same topic from Digital Music News. The chart below demonstrates that streaming services are making a net loss and that overall, despite their revenue, there remains significant financial pressure that could threaten their viability long term. This does not look like a good picture, especially for Spotify, who has incurred an increasing loss over the past few years:
You will find more statistics at Statista
Further Reading
Statista, Will Music Streaming Ever Be Profitable? (29 August 2012) < http://www.statista.com/markets/14/topic/111/music-audio/chart/577/will-music-streaming-ever-be-profitable/ > at 10 September 2012
Digital Music News, I Took One Look at This Graph. And Suddenly Lost Hope for Streaming Music... (5 September 2012) < http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120905streaming > at 10 September 2012
You will find more statistics at Statista
Further Reading
Statista, Will Music Streaming Ever Be Profitable? (29 August 2012) < http://www.statista.com/markets/14/topic/111/music-audio/chart/577/will-music-streaming-ever-be-profitable/ > at 10 September 2012
Digital Music News, I Took One Look at This Graph. And Suddenly Lost Hope for Streaming Music... (5 September 2012) < http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120905streaming > at 10 September 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Digital Music News: The Most Infamous Music Infographic, Updated for 2012..
I have been given permission from Digital Music News to publish this graphic - it is an updated version of a graphic by Information Is Beautiful from 2010. The sources data is available from the DMN article - 'The Most Infamous Music Infographic, Updated for 2012...'. As you can see from the graphic, for a solo artist to earn the US monthly minimum wage they must sell 1,706 copies of an MP3 on iTunes, 2,320 CDs (major label) or there must be 232,000 streams on Spotify (independents). This presents a very interesting picture of the comparative revenue sources.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Spotify comes to Australia Part 2
I just came across an interesting interview between Sophie McNeill of the Triple J Hack Program and Spotify Managing Director Kate Vale that was broadcast in Australia recently. Kate Vale seems to suggest that the number of illegal downloaders in Australia is somewhere around 2 to 3 million people. You can read a transcript of the interview published on Digital Music News here or you can take a listen to the interview here.
Further Information
Digital Music News, Spotify: We Will Not Be Disclosing Any of Our Royalty Payments... (23 May 2012) <http://digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120522latest> at 31 May 2012
Triple J: Hack, Spotify or Notify? (22 May 2012) < http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/stories/s3508628.htm > at 31 May 2012
Further Information
Digital Music News, Spotify: We Will Not Be Disclosing Any of Our Royalty Payments... (23 May 2012) <http://digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120522latest> at 31 May 2012
Triple J: Hack, Spotify or Notify? (22 May 2012) < http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/stories/s3508628.htm > at 31 May 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Spotify comes to Australia
Spotify launched in Australia on Tuesday. The Swedish service offers around 16 million songs to subscribers who can select from either a free, ad supported service or upgrade to a paid advertisement free or mobile service. Users can only sign up for the service if they have a facebook account as the two services are integrated however many users may not know that they need to update their privacy settings in facebook if they do not want their music listening habits displayed on their facebook page.
Independent artists looking to get their music on to the streaming service need to work with aggregators such as Record Union, CDBaby, Ditto Music and Zimbalam.It takes around 4 to 6 weeks to get music uploaded to the site. But be warned, some artists have been unhappy with the rate of payment per stream they get from the site. In some cases high profile artists have refused to have their music available on the site, particularly when it is first launched, fearing that the ad supported access model will lead to a drop in sales in the early months.
As of April 2012 Spotify had around 3 million users.
You can go to the Spotify website here.
Independent artists looking to get their music on to the streaming service need to work with aggregators such as Record Union, CDBaby, Ditto Music and Zimbalam.It takes around 4 to 6 weeks to get music uploaded to the site. But be warned, some artists have been unhappy with the rate of payment per stream they get from the site. In some cases high profile artists have refused to have their music available on the site, particularly when it is first launched, fearing that the ad supported access model will lead to a drop in sales in the early months.
As of April 2012 Spotify had around 3 million users.
You can go to the Spotify website here.
Spotify, <https://www.spotify.com/au/ > at 24 May 2012
Spotify, Lables and artists < https://www.spotify.com/au/work-with-us/labels-and-artists/ > at 24 May 2012
The Project, Out, damned Spotify! (23 May 2012) < http://theprojecttv.com.au/i-dont-get-how-that-name-means-music.htm > at 24 May 2012
Digital Music News, The State of Music Subscription (24 April 2012) < http://digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120424subscription > at 24 May 2012
Digital Music News, Spotify: "The Overwhelming Majority of Our Label Partners are Thrilled With the Revenues" (23 November 2011) < http://digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2011/111122spotifyresponds > at 27 November 2011
Digital Music News, Distributor STHoldings Pulls 234 Labels from Spotify, Rdio, Others... (17 November 2011) < http://digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2011/111116stholdings > at 27 November 2011
Digital Music News, Study: Spotify Is Detrimental to Music Purchasing... (16 November 2011) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2011/111115cannibal > at 27 November 2011
Digital Music News, No Thanks, Spotify: Coldplay Just Set a Digital Album Sales Record... (1 November 2011) < http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/103111coldplay > at 8 November 2011
Digital Music News, Coldplay Refuses to License Its Latest Album to Spotify... (27 October 2011) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/102611coldplay > at 1 November 2011
Digital Music News, Spotify Just Crossed a Quarter Million Subscribers In the US... (17 October 2011) < http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/101411spotify > at 19 October 2011
Digital Music News, Uh-Oh: Spotify Has Lost $68 Million Since Inception... (12 October 2011) < http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/101111spotify > at 19 October 2011
Digital Music News, Projekt Records: Spotify Is 'Not a Viable Way Forward...' (29 September 2011) < http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092811spotifybail > at 3 October 2011
TechDirt, Labels Dropping Out Of Spotify Are Totally Missing The Point (23 September 2011) < http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110922/11224716052/labels-dropping-out-spotify-are-totally-missing-point.shtml > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, Then, This: Another Indie Pulls Out of Spotify... (20 September 2011) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091911spotify > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, Spotify Defends Its Payout Structure... (20 September 2011) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091911spotifydefends > at 26 September 2011
TechDirt, How Much Does A Band Make From Various Music Platforms? (12 September 2011) < http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20110911/00284415891/how-much-does-band-make-various-music-platforms.shtml > at 19 September 2011
Digital Music News, What an Artist Really Gets Paid, Continued... (14 September 2011) <http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091311artistmakes > at 19 September 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Spotify and Facebook
There have been some major changes announced recently with the integration of music with facebook. With the recent launch of spotify in the USA I am particularly interested in the merger between it and facebook.
It was reported this week that spotify account holders are now required to have a facebook account. This seems like an odd requirement and one that could backfire with some people not wishing to use facebook at all. This seems to be a cross promotional arrangement and is likely to improve integration with the two services with one login password able to activate both.
Recent changes to facebook include the live reporting of user activity and the ability to share music with friends through facebook. Interestingly enough spotify users will be able to restrict the reporting of their listening habits through the settings in spotify - there has been no indication that such reporting restrictions are possible through the new facebook interface. Nor has there been reports that other music services to be integrated with facebook will have the same ability to restrict the sharing of listening activity. Indeed it has been reported that facebook are using cookies to track users activities even after they have logged out of the service.
There have been some negative developments for Spotify however with three independent labels withdrawing their catalogues from the service citing a lack of financial viability as the reason. Spotify suggest that this was an error on the labels part and were quick to point out that copyright holders are not paid for each time the music is streamed but rather are paid for allowing access to the music. This does seem counterproductive for labels that are most likely to need the exposure to new audiences to create momentum for independent artists. Two million paying subscribers are a large potential audience and this could be the case of shooting oneself in the foot.
Having said that, recent reports suggest that independent acts do make very little out of spotify. European band Uniform Motion suggest they get 0.003 EUR/play. If you listen to the album all the way through, they get 0.029 EUR. If you listen to the album 10 times on Spotify, they get 0.29 EUR. If you listen to it a hundred times, they get 2.94 EUR and if you listen to the album 1,000 times (once a day for 3 years!)they get 29.47 EUR! This does seem like a hard way to make money and at a fraction of the rate of downloads from iTunes for example.
Further Reading
Digital Music News, It Gets Worse: Spotify Now Requiring New Users to Have Facebook Accounts... (27 September 2011) < http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092611marriage > at 3 October 2011
TechDirt, Labels Dropping Out Of Spotify Are Totally Missing The Point (23 September 2011) < http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110922/11224716052/labels-dropping-out-spotify-are-totally-missing-point.shtml > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, The Facebook Effect: It's Time to Rethink How Music Works... (23 September 2011) < http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092211facebookmusic > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, Facebook's Extreme Makeover: It's Happening, Already... (22 September 2011) < http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092111facebook > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, Spotify Now Surpassing 2 Million Paying Subscribers... (22 September 2011) < http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092111spotify > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, Then, This: Another Indie Pulls Out of Spotify... (20 September 2011) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091911spotify > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, Spotify Defends Its Payout Structure... (20 September 2011) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091911spotifydefends > at 26 September 2011
TechDirt, How Much Does A Band Make From Various Music Platforms? (12 September 2011) < http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20110911/00284415891/how-much-does-band-make-various-music-platforms.shtml > at 19 September 2011
Digital Music News, What an Artist Really Gets Paid, Continued... (14 September 2011) <http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091311artistmakes > at 19 September 2011
Digital Music News, Facebook Admits to Tracking Logged-Out Users... (28 September 2011) < http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092711facebook > at 3 October 2011
It was reported this week that spotify account holders are now required to have a facebook account. This seems like an odd requirement and one that could backfire with some people not wishing to use facebook at all. This seems to be a cross promotional arrangement and is likely to improve integration with the two services with one login password able to activate both.
Recent changes to facebook include the live reporting of user activity and the ability to share music with friends through facebook. Interestingly enough spotify users will be able to restrict the reporting of their listening habits through the settings in spotify - there has been no indication that such reporting restrictions are possible through the new facebook interface. Nor has there been reports that other music services to be integrated with facebook will have the same ability to restrict the sharing of listening activity. Indeed it has been reported that facebook are using cookies to track users activities even after they have logged out of the service.
There have been some negative developments for Spotify however with three independent labels withdrawing their catalogues from the service citing a lack of financial viability as the reason. Spotify suggest that this was an error on the labels part and were quick to point out that copyright holders are not paid for each time the music is streamed but rather are paid for allowing access to the music. This does seem counterproductive for labels that are most likely to need the exposure to new audiences to create momentum for independent artists. Two million paying subscribers are a large potential audience and this could be the case of shooting oneself in the foot.
Having said that, recent reports suggest that independent acts do make very little out of spotify. European band Uniform Motion suggest they get 0.003 EUR/play. If you listen to the album all the way through, they get 0.029 EUR. If you listen to the album 10 times on Spotify, they get 0.29 EUR. If you listen to it a hundred times, they get 2.94 EUR and if you listen to the album 1,000 times (once a day for 3 years!)they get 29.47 EUR! This does seem like a hard way to make money and at a fraction of the rate of downloads from iTunes for example.
Further Reading
Digital Music News, It Gets Worse: Spotify Now Requiring New Users to Have Facebook Accounts... (27 September 2011) < http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092611marriage > at 3 October 2011
TechDirt, Labels Dropping Out Of Spotify Are Totally Missing The Point (23 September 2011) < http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110922/11224716052/labels-dropping-out-spotify-are-totally-missing-point.shtml > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, The Facebook Effect: It's Time to Rethink How Music Works... (23 September 2011) < http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092211facebookmusic > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, Facebook's Extreme Makeover: It's Happening, Already... (22 September 2011) < http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092111facebook > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, Spotify Now Surpassing 2 Million Paying Subscribers... (22 September 2011) < http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092111spotify > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, Then, This: Another Indie Pulls Out of Spotify... (20 September 2011) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091911spotify > at 26 September 2011
Digital Music News, Spotify Defends Its Payout Structure... (20 September 2011) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091911spotifydefends > at 26 September 2011
TechDirt, How Much Does A Band Make From Various Music Platforms? (12 September 2011) < http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20110911/00284415891/how-much-does-band-make-various-music-platforms.shtml > at 19 September 2011
Digital Music News, What an Artist Really Gets Paid, Continued... (14 September 2011) <http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091311artistmakes > at 19 September 2011
Digital Music News, Facebook Admits to Tracking Logged-Out Users... (28 September 2011) < http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092711facebook > at 3 October 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
New Stuff
Check out this interview with the band The Herd on their recent trial of a 'pay what you want' business model for their new single The Sum of it All. They state that the trial has been successful with hundreds of downloads, some around the $10 to $20 mark with their use of a mailing list and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to advise fans that the song is now available. This week the song also became available via iTunes so it will be interesting to see whether fans that are yet to purchase use the 'pay what you want' model still or prefer iTunes. This interview also enables readers to watch the new clip to their single - this has only become available today.
ALSO for those in Australia that didnt catch HungryBeast last night on the ABC it is worth checking out on iView (not available outside Australia) as it was a download special which made particular reference to cloud computing and the trend toward streaming and away from downloading from file sharing networks. It was really interesting with very current information about Amazon's new service.
Further Reading
The Vine, The Herd - interview (1 April 2011) < http://www.thevine.com.au/music/interviews/the-herd-_-interview20110401.aspx?ctpage=0 > at 21 April 2011
ALSO for those in Australia that didnt catch HungryBeast last night on the ABC it is worth checking out on iView (not available outside Australia) as it was a download special which made particular reference to cloud computing and the trend toward streaming and away from downloading from file sharing networks. It was really interesting with very current information about Amazon's new service.
Further Reading
The Vine, The Herd - interview (1 April 2011) < http://www.thevine.com.au/music/interviews/the-herd-_-interview20110401.aspx?ctpage=0 > at 21 April 2011
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