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 realise 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. For streaming services to survive and thrive, as well as compete with one another, they need to greatly expand their commerce offerings.

With a population of over 250 million, big companies have their eyes set on Indonesia.

Statistics show that the total number of mobile phone users for 2017 is expected to rise to a whopping 173 million, making this country an attractive territory for mobile marketing.  

But while Indonesia is a promising market because of the density of its consumers on mobile, geography is a hurdle for all marketers.

With over 17,000 islands and more than 726 dialects spoken across the archipelago, how can brands reach this seemingly fragmented audience?

The influx of capital investments in emerging markets creates massive job opportunities, which in return gives millions of consumers new purchasing power. And with the growth surge of smartphone penetration in Southeast Asia, this region has undoubtedly became one of the most attractive markets for mobile and internet marketing. Throughout the years, I’ve seen how big multinational brands launched aggressive campaigns to win the race of capturing these territories first. But while “first strike” is important, it is equally significant to “strike the right note” with these consumers.

There has been a major shift in how brands, labels and technology providers are engaging and communicating with consumers due to the digital revolution.

What is often seen as three different enterprises leveraging the same universal language — music — must now work out a way to come together and provide the best music streaming services to engage music fans in the most memorable way.

The digital landscape brings us now to a much more sustainable environment that allows brands to measure ROI while sending targeted messages to collect user data.

This initiative drives brand affinity and customer loyalty and increases conversion.

The key to working together more effectively is to move from a client-supplier relationship to one of a more unified approach and economy, namely the partnership between brands, tech platforms and record labels.

Too often, the relationship between industry players is compartmentalised, instead of embracing the opportunity to grow the market together by achieving a common goal.

To collaborate successfully, a transparent and open discussion is needed between all parties involved with a willingness to approach the market challenges with a fresh agenda.

Today, creators of mobile technology are catering to the market’s need for better quality of life. They are seeing the importance of finding ways to connect digital tools with emotional needs in order to increase customer engagement.

An exciting development for brands is that wearable technology lets you in on your consumers’ lives, habits and personalities, to tap into more data, forecasting their desires.

In today’s mobile arena, it’s crucial for customers to connect with your brand. Through business intelligence tools, brands can gather important data (such as location, gender, and music preferences) every time a user listens to their favourite music. By utilising this data, brands can create buyer personas that will enable them to reach out and figuratively grab consumers on a personal level.

As marketing becomes even more competitive and sophisticated, it’s crucial for brands to find innovative ways to connect to existing customers while engaging new ones. This entails providing a personalised experience that customers can relate to on an emotional level — and music can provide that experience. The universal language of music can be used to reach customers across the globe; when used in a mobile context, music can convert mobile experience to an effective customer engagement strategy for brands.

With the list of music streaming services growing by the minute, it’s hard to see which one is more effective for customer acquisition, retention and brand user experience.

Each is unique and offers different variations of music streaming services, costs, music catalog and social elements. Depending on what your company offers and is looking to provide, it’s important to understand what the main differences are and how it will impact your brand experience strategy. According to Digital Music news, “a minority (47%) of 16-34s reported listening to fewer than 3 hours a day, with most self-reporting between 3-6 hours daily.” With this in mind, it’s now time to figure out which of the music streaming services are better suited to your brand.

When you play music during exercise, it’s most probably upbeat in lyrics and tempo.

The psychology behind this is relatively straightforward.

Music lights up areas of your brain that cause you to feel emotions depending on the memories, feelings and new experiences you have with a certain song.

Music has the ability to make you feel the highs of highs and even the lows of lows, which makes it an important, powerful tool for customer engagement.

When it comes to the best brand experience, a few companies stand out from the crowd.

These companies maintain several elements to engage and interact with their audience.

For many big name brands, music is one of the most diverse, useful elements that build the best brand experience for their customers.

According to the IFPI Global Music Report (2016) “The global music market achieved a key milestone in 2015 when digital became the primary revenue stream for recorded music, overtaking sales of physical formats for the first time.”

If the report tells us anything, it’s that Millennials place a lot of importance on their ability to access new music, even if it’s as a part of a brand experience.

But who are the companies that use digital music as part of their brand experience strategy?