#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?

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.

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.

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.