Streaming Services, Artists and Brands: Stop Whining & Start Winning

From an article about "the myopic focus on streaming royalties as the fulcrum of the debate on artist revenues", Justin Mink rote :

today’s mainstream music services are stuck in a rut, continuing to monetize inventory by selling traditional ad space or premium subscriptions. Pandora, Spotify and iHeartRadio lost roughly a combined $2 billion dollars in 2014. In today’s environment neither artists nor music services win.

So what’s the solution that will align artists, music services (and let’s not forget about us listeners) in a way that benefits everyone?

Leveraging big data as a new revenue source is what artists should essentially sell - listenership data to brands looking to create customer personas, offering tremendous value to brands.

This new revenue stream would only (partially) solve for the artist side of the equation. The author fails to see the larger opportunity perched in front of our collective noses – brands can leverage big data to identify th musical DNA of customers, then incent music services to empower more of this discovery by creating an entirely new type of ad inventory.

Sponsored music could actually result in more musical diversity as brand patrons provide the promotional platform for getting artists heard by audiences predisposed to like their music.

This new inventory could (and should) ultimately be treated like the Google AdWords of music.“Native advertising is one of the fastest growing segments of the advertising market.” Brands now connect with their consumers through content creators who have passionately energized fans and followers. This new inventory – sponsored music – would enable the delivery of brand messages that truly connect emotionally with customers.

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the results indicate that audiences react more favorably to brand messages featuring the type of music they are listening to at that moment.

“If massive scaling is what’s required, let me be bold in stating that data monetization could witness the fastest growing era in music’s history. Only this time, artists are in charge.”

Future IS indeed very bright for artists, who will be in control of their destiny with access to new marketing data and information. Think about what the music industry would look like with the injection of sponsored music: Consumers will benefit from a more diverse musical landscape, smartly driven by data. Music services will finally realize profits, and the royalty debate will disappear.

This single, commerce-driven innovation represents the road to a healthy and vibrant music industry, the kind of confluence that only occurs when all stakeholder interests are aligned in perfect harmony.

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