#PowerOfMusic

The fitness space has been going through a significant transition since 2018 with the emergence of connected devices targeted at the home exercise market. The lockdown experienced in 2020 accelerated this transition with the advent of live and on-demand classes to groups of fifty plus. The benefits for all are clear, no more travelling to the gym or struggling to book a class and a much larger audience.
But what about the music? User experiences vary from no music at all to a request for users to select a playlist on Spotify, to instructors playing music without licensing, generating a significant business risk.

Let’s dig through the challenges and solutions around music and streaming in the digital fitness industry.

In major developed countries, the mobile data market, including both 3G and 4G, is close to saturation. Mobile data consumption has steadily increased in the last few years, and consumers have found new ways to avoid paying for services they neither need nor use. The strong competition between mobile companies has allowed consumers to switch from fixed data plans to unlimited plans and pay less. Operators are increasingly turning to targeted and data-driven services to encourage data usage and find new monetisation strategies. Parks Associates released the Mobile Data Services industry report in 2018: Business Model Assessment, which includes an analysis of the top five data services in the US market.

What are the main data services used by mobile carrier and smartphone users?

A very young population, a smartphone rate which is exploding, and an undeniable musical wealth: Africa has never been so courted, even in small French-speaking countries where major labels are coming, to invest in streaming.

The time when pirate tapes and CDs were sold in the street under photocopied packaging is gone! Listening to online music and the arrival of the 3G connection in capital cities is changing everything.

"Everyone knows that the market will explode. There is talk of $80 million for the streaming market in 2020 in Nigeria", says Jean-Noel Tronc, from SACEM (Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music) in France.

When you decide to create your own music streaming service, you have two options: develop it yourself (internally) or outsource your creation.

Each of the two options has its advantages and disadvantages. But here we will explain why using a service provider specialising in the development of music streaming services or platforms is an excellent alternative including costs, time, quality, security and expertise.

In today’s digital and tech-focused world, more and more companies are realizing that marketing is no longer about simply placing ads in print magazines or between television episodes. Instead, businesses have discovered the promotional power of an age-old art form: music. And they have begun to incorporate entertainment as an important piece of their mobile marketing efforts.

Companies have approached using music for marketing in a variety of ways. Some have collaborated with famous artists (such as Verizon, which paired up with superstar Jamie Foxx to create and release exclusive tracks and videos), while others have sponsored live events and festivals (such as T-Mobile, which sponsored Coachella) in order to capture their target audience.

In today’s on-demand world where everyone has access to information 24/7 through their smartphones, driving customer engagement means having the ability to quickly respond to consumers’ needs and wants through their mobiles. Throughout the years, I have seen how music plays a significant role in creating a long-lasting spark between consumers and brands.  Traditional marketing models have flipped to focus on creating a memorable experience that puts customers in control as music is now streamed and users expect it to be free.

Streaming radio service Pandora recently announced the launch of a lower-priced interactive streaming platform, the result of its purchase of Rdio last year. Unfortunately, the launch might not have the result many in the music business are hoping for; while it will surely convert a handful of listeners who couldn’t afford the standard $9.99 USD per month price, it won’t move the needle in a meaningful way. That’s because the hardest jump for people to make is not from $5.99 to $9.99 -- it’s from zero to a penny.

With the announcement of Pandora’s partnership with Ticketfly to enable in-app ticket purchases, it appears that streaming services have started to realize that they can’t survive on music listening alone. Spotify has deals in place with Songkick and Merchbar, and other services will likely follow suit over the course of the coming year. While these steps are laudable and needed, they are only the tip of the iceberg. In order for streaming services to survive and thrive, as well as compete with one another, they need to greatly expand their commerce offerings.

Over the years, Indonesia has been one of the most dynamic mobile ad markets in the world (Redwing) with mobile advertising platform Inmobi claiming that ad volumes grew 100% from 2011 to 2012.

As of right now, it looks like the age of the music streaming exclusive might be drawing to a close. While providing albums exclusively to one service might have led to a financial windfall for some artists, the resulting piracy and fan backlash proved to be too much for Universal Music Group, which sent out a decree declaring the end of the practice a few weeks ago. This is great news for listeners who want to stick with one service, but it also creates a new problem for artists -- in an age of declining album sales and advances, they need more sources of revenue. Music streaming services can no longer provide that, and brands can be the ones to step in and fill that role. If done well, branded album exclusives can provide a benefit for the artist, brand, and fans -- but done poorly, they can result in bad press and frustration.