Spotify to launch Video online.

Spotify are to launch Video.

Initially to Android App users (mobile only), it will start in The UK, Germany and Sweden (funny enough). Clearly too, it's probably going to be music-led videos but there's no reason not to extend that into Sports, News, Entertainment and so. 

Spotify understand that the money is in online video and follow Facebook/Twitter/YouTube if you have an audience and they do. 75 million with 20 million of them subscribing.

A very appealing younger demographic and one which tends to be 'sticky' and which can be brought to relevant video depending on their choices.

Of course a movie service wouldn't be out of the question either we assume...

With a current valuation of 8.5 Billion usd, this will add to that, although it's not yet profitable and whilst this video service will be 'ad free', assume that should also say 'initially'.

Online Digital Video? Streamabout.com

IMusic? Stunningly Magnificent.

And this Ladies and Gentlemen, is about as stunning as you get.

Apple IMusic simply has just turned the music business on its head to the benefit of listeners. 

It is superb.

Does it allow you to listen to any Album? Yes it does
Can you add to that to your music collection (my music) as if you own it? You can, unlimited
Can you buy the Album directly through Itunes? Yep although we're not sure why you would
Can you "follow" artists as in a Social Media way? Sure
Can you form playlists or listen to curated playlists by artists? Indeed, like the one Joni Mitchell just made
Is it easy and beautiful to navigate? It is, although like a new Fax machine, takes a day to get around it
Is there anything wrong with it? Not a bit

All for under 10 euro a month with a free 3 month trial which presumably, is designed to attract in those Spotify or Pandora users whom, quite frankly, it's hard to see why they'd move back.

If you have an Apple product it's there by now and you should simply sign up. 

That's objective recommendation too, because we have nothing to do with Apple but just thought it was something very cool.

What it will do is of course, lose revenue to Apple (and the artists) from downloads and replace that revenue with streaming subscriptions. Which probably, will mean less for everyone in the business. 

Although, the user benefits with every possible Album for a low cost.

On the other hand, it also democratises music, allowing you access to free new Albums that you'd never had bought you thought, but can now listen to and might stream. So it's great for new bands.

But it's a Wow. Really. Did you get that? A total, complete WOW.

Apple's new Music Service. Coming, today.

Apple's new music streaming service is on the way and it's going to change ITunes.

Called 'Apple Music' it will compete with the likes of Spotify, Deezer and Pandora and will be all encompassing (radio and downloading including) probably costing about 10 USD a month and be pre-installed in the next generation of iphones (giving it instant market distribution).

Plus Apple's extraordinary cash reserves, will give it the marketing edge on competitors simply by outspending them (Spotify has 15 million subscribers - the market is circa 40 million subscribers currently).

Unlike Spotify, Apple Music will not have a free tier so either you're in or you're not but they're likely to bundle some free months are part of a signing up offer.

Streaming may of course, hamper the declining download market which in turn, will impact on the general music business. But Streaming has shown significant growth - it's what consumers want vis-a-vis downloading.

All coming in an announcement today.
But it's a big change for the way in which Apple are attacking music.
And a big change for artists too.

Aereo loses, TV wins. Isn't this a bit like Napster?

So the US Supreme Court, on a 6:3 majority only, have ruled that Aereo is illegal. It reverses a lower court decision in favour of Aereo on appeal.

Aereo, as you'll note in other blog posts here, was the online re-broadcaster of TV stations content based on a 8/10 Dollar monthly subscription.

Had the ruling gone the other way (in favour of Aereo) it could have spelt the end of TV.

This is potentially a fatal blow to the online service. 

The problem was copyright violation and the fact that Aereo, by supplying some kit (an aerial etc), it was something different than simply "re broadcasting". Almost like a Video recorded function which was a key Aereo argument.

After all, video recorders re-broadcast content?

Anyway, losing means losing big.

For Aereo to survive now, it will now have to negotiate fees with those broadcasters who've been through court against them. And then, probably at a prohibitive price.....if at all. I don't think they'd even enter the conversation.

It does not affect the likes of Netflix or other streaming services. Equally it won't affect cloud services which store copyrighted content.

I have to say it reminded me of the whole furore over Sean Parker's Napster. It was the fastest growing business one-time with music downloads which the court shut-down.

And then along came Itunes and Parker returned with Spotify. Today he's worth circa 2 Billion usd.

So perhaps Aereo lost today and TV won. But then, perhaps it's only a matter of time......

US Digital Album Sales down 6% for the first time since ITunes. Why?

For the first time since Apple opened its Itunes music store in 2003, US digital music sales have fallen last year. Interesting data from the reputable Financial Times.

Why?

They've dropped by about -6%, and downloads account for about 70% of that market (which shows you how much record shops have suffered) to well over a billion units. Of which Apple now controls about 70%.

The reason why is streaming - music rental.

Itunes Radio is one reason where people hear songs in a radio playlist supported by advertising. So if they switch to Itunes Radio, they are less likely to buy from ITunes.

Might be a case of shooting yourself in the foot? We will see.

Spotify also people to choose the songs they want to hear for a monthly fee. Deezer similarly.

Monthly fees might stabilise the market but it will defeat downloads. I don't necessarily need to buy the song, just listen to it. 

But artists and music company revenue is worse in monthly streaming.... generating licence fees of circa 7,000 usd which is equivalent to about 12,000 bought downloads. Only. Beyonce's latest album had about 830,000 downloads in three days.

And of course, there's the monthly free streaming options out there which don't generate hard core revenue but rather a share in advertising. Worse again if you're a record label.

It's a sea change in the manner in which music is distributed and hence the impact on downloads. Will people want to just rent an album rather than buy it? If they do, there's a long hard road ahead.

However, it's hard to feel sorry for record labels. They spent years fighting it instead of embracing it and now find themselves dictated to by the market.

For once.

Spotify just went free on Mobile. This is going to hurt.

Music streaming just got shot.

Spotify announced that its music streaming service will be free (yep, free) to mobile users. Now that's a real shot at Itunes Radio (which is free) as they prepare to launch fully. Other services will be really hit because you can't compete with free - only match it.

Spotify was previously 9.99 a month (spotify premium) but they did have a free version for desktop and laptop.

And they also announced to get more publicity, that they now had a whole lotta Led Zep online. For free. (Led Zep 4, cover above, is always thought to be their best moment btw).

The service will be supported by Advertising for revenue.

This will concern local radio stations with a music bias, who'll have difficulty in retaining online listeners too. 

Of course, Spotify will try to upsell you to ad-free versions and indeed other services such as 'on-demand'. But this is a breakthrough in the fight for listeners however, it's also a sign of a race to the bottom for all subscription services.

What's happening is, people are able or prepared to pay less so they're moving. If Spotify's subscription model was a roaring success, they wouldn't be doing this, trust me.

And will advertising pay for the music copyright fees and run the business? Difficult to see, but it is a model working for Facebook and starting to work for Twitter. 

One thing for sure though, it has killed the market.

Digital Radio rolls out globally. iTunes Radio has real potential to own this.

Without a doubt, the next wave is going to be Digital Radio.

We have music streaming services on monthly subscription and we have music downloads, now we'll have sophisticated digital radio with more than 250 DJ curated stations to listen to - for free.

And Apple will own it.

They launched the service in September (same day as IOS7 so it got little PR) across all devices including Apple TV, but only in the USA, for now. Already they're announcing plans to roll it out across Europe. UK, NZ, Australia and Canada were announced only yesterday.

It features in the Itunes store and thereby, immediately putting it in front of an audience of millions. 11 million listeners tried it in the first 5 days after launch.....

What it does in part, is to build pre-made stations around your music choices. So if you hear a particularly song you like, it will tell you the stations that have just played it. Therefore, they might be your kind of stations.

Or you might just want stations that play your favourite genre - Country, Jazz - it will bring you those. The more you listen, the more personalised your station becomes as you decide to make choices - for example, 'never play that song again' - and it won't. The more you listen, the more itunes knows the stations you love and the more it can play the music you love.

So you create your own station in effect, or a pre-made one created based on music you listen to or the music you buy. But there are text and audio ads built into the music and hence it's free although you can remove Ads by upgrading through a subscription. It already has Ad deals in place with P&G, McDonalds, Pepsi and Nissan to start.

It looks too like there's no streaming limits so in some ways it's head-to-head with 13 year old Pandora (Apple are beating them in their quick roll-out and music rights buy-outs) and Spotify, although different. 

Pandora may suffer and reports are that Pandora customers are switching over. However, Bloggers are critical of Apple for simply "copying Pandora". Something Steve Jobs was so critical of other brands doing to Apple.

Of course too, by listening to ITunes Radio, if you hear a song or artist you like, you can buy it there and then.

So it's encouraging music sales by giving listeners what are, free samples. Clever.

And without any doubt, Apple have the distribution, the brand, the financial clout to own Digital Radio globally. Which will have implications for traditional, local stations especially in a young, 14-26 demographic. Those radio stations will need to wake-up to this challenge and they can, by having one big advantage - local content.

Certainly in Ireland, Radio Media owners tend to be smart, bright people but the sudden impact of an Itunes Radio launch will require a response. Now's the time to formulate that because it's coming.

Be 100% sure of that.

Publishers, Music Companies, Mobile Companies and more are being rescued by internet companies they tried to stop.

All the talk of the Internet wreaking havoc on traditional media companies is changing. In fact, it's helping them!!

I've stolen this from a great Article in the current August 17th edition of  The Economist (cover above) which is well worth the read, called "digital pennies pile up at last".

The reputable PWC reckons revenue for online media and entertainment will rise by 13% each year for the next 5. So the web is growing the entertainment business.

Music, which record companies legally, stupidly, fought internet pioneers for years, is actually showing +.2% growth - the first time it's growing in a decade. Which means the internet increases royalty payments to....the very same record companies! 

And that's their IFPI trade group numbers. So the web is coming to their rescue as their CD and DVD sales collapse.

Online radio and music streaming (Spotify etc) brought in a billion dollars in 2012. 

Mobile phone companies are benefitting too, by selling data to access these services whilst their call rates are going into a death spiral. 

YouTube are now paying small copyright fees too on music downloads.

Netflix, Hulu and Amazon are of course buying rights to stream content online from traditional broadcasters. That's about 3 billion Dollars a year and rising. Online licensing accounts now for a third of the revenue growth at traditional CBS.

Book sales are growing again by about 14% per year on Ebooks means bigger profits for publishers and for authors. Yes, it has meant the death of bookshops but in return, accessibility to books is far greater especially amongst the young and far more of us are reading.

Digital newspapers subscriptions are working to a point too. The New York Times has nearly 700,000 (!) online subscribers. 

The surge in smartphones, in tablets, in ipads coupled with the extension of broadband speeds are driving this growth. EMarketer, a US research firm, thinks Americans will spend more time online this year than on TV. And because people want content, 'on the go', they're becoming more prepared to pay for it.

It's a fairly extraordinary turnaround that Internet companies are now becoming the saviour of traditional media companies such as publishers, record labels and TV broadcasters who tried so desperately to stop it. Instead of embracing it, encouraging it, because better access means higher sales, they were afraid of something they didn't understand.

They'd have sold more far sooner, if they had.

Ad revenue is bypassing Ad Agencies as it goes online. Like the book publishers, the record companies of old, Agencies are pooh-poohing it instead of selling it, embracing it. There's lessons here.

Like the peasant's in Lamb's essay, we know not how to roast pork, other than to burn the house down.

Interesting isn't it? 
You have to laugh though. Irony of ironies.

Budweiser is trying to own music. But then, isn't everyone.

Budweiser is trying to own music. But then, isn't everyone.

I know of a number of brands who are trying to get into this space with dedicated music channels for users. The problem is, they won't and don't own music - that's Spotify, ITunes and a myriad of dedicated online streamers.

Budweiser has got into business with Facebook (10m bud fans there) and Vice with what they call their 'Made for Music' campaign trying to connect music fans with Bud. It includes "behind the scenes" video and photos. They're also focussed on helping new bands break into the spotlight - or read that as they're not prepared to pay the costs of streaming established bands.

There's also a Budweiser music festival. 

There's nothing wrong with this per se - save the clear problems targeting music fans on Facebook who are under drinking age which has to be/should be a big big issue - except, if you're going to do it, do it right.

You need topline bands and artists that are available on the likes of Ireland's own, Muzu.tv. And music costs through royalties, big time. It's not cheap at the top end.

But there is no other way. Get into bed with a big established music online provider or frankly, don't do it.

It's just in danger of being as naff as it sounds.

Spotify. They've blazed a trail in music streaming and now face a huge challenge. So they turn to advertising and their first TV Commercial.

'We are Spotify, we are for music', sounds like the Pedigree Chum Campaign 'We are for dogs' and you can't help but see in Spotify's new, first, TV Campaign, influences from Apple advertising.

I have no understanding of their copyline either, "Music is worth fighting for"? Sounds like a copywriter trying to be evocative without making sense. 

However, the point is that this is Spotify's bid to get into US Homes through TV advertising, promoting its music streaming business before competitors enter the space. And the space is hotting up.

Apple, Amazon and most notably Google, are all primed to enter the Spotify space. Big players with big money.

Music Streaming is different to music downloading (as in ITunes) in that it allows you to listen to tracks for a standard subscription. 

Launched in Sweden in 2008, Spotify currently has over 20 million active members with about 6 million paying and has a valuation of circa 3 billion usd. So it's a relatively young start-up that has grown and has trail blazed a new segment of streaming music. All from a base in Sweden. Not bad at all really.

Its success hasn't gone unnoticed and hence they're now faced with big players coming into their market - always a problem for a start-up. If you're successful, others will follows. And hence therefore, this new TV Commercial to try to develop subscribers before the big boys get hold. Which is exactly the right thing to do, whether you like the commercial or not.

Spotify deserves the success either way. And turning to Advertising will help it now. But it's now faced with the challenge of its young life. 

Google to launch new Music streaming service. This giant is awakening.

Google really seem to have their heads up especially with the oncoming onslaught of glasses and their move into retail. It's almost like there's a new energy a Google, a new momentum?

According to the front page of this weekend's Financial Times, they're about to launch a music streaming service and The FT know because of the discussions taking place with big music labels. It will therefore compete with Deezer and Spotify.

Although there's an irony here because music labels didn't like google as they saw Search engines facilitating, music piracy.

Advertising accounts for about 95% of google's revenue so these type of services (and glasses) changes their revenue model to being based more on consumer income. No bad thing. 

Music streaming normally allows two price options - free, but be subject to advertising or, pay, and get premium music, ad-free service. With download you get to keep the tract and this "streaming" market is worth over 1.5 billion usd a year....at the moment.

Commercial music download concepts (like Apple's itunes) is different to streaming and Google already launched a US music download store in late 2011. They also have YouTube plans for subscription music services and others (such as travel, price comparisons and so on). 

Google can easily bring these services to the Nexus tablets and their Android phones (as Apple do with Itunes on iPhone). By scrutinising consumer habits and downloads, Advertising Agencies might be well prepared to get involved with this. It could be a valuable database.

But this will give Google another string to its bow. It seems a sleeping giant is awakening....and when it does, we will feel the roar.

BBC launch Iplayer Radio. Radio owners need to be aware and beware.

BBC, possibly the most regarded broadcaster in the world, launched its TV iplayer in 2007 allowing users access to its archived/live content and during the summer, it was used nearly 200 million times. Although, 90% of its listeners, watch live at the moment.

Year-on-year, the BBC iplayer requests have increased by a massive 56% on mobile and 300% on tablet. Oh ye of little faith in online broadcasting.

Now they've launched Iplayer Radio, by way of an App, allowing access to their network of 57 stations, live and on demand, across all devices. Mobile alone represents about 18% of its access but peaking at particular shows, to 30%. A massive audience and this allows users to easily switch between stations and therefore, retaining the audience.

Although state owned, BBC is free to air and more and more people are prepared to listen to global radio stations through streaming devices at home. Our house on Sundays, small example as that is, wakes to 'Radio Paradise' an American online station and 'Jones College Radio' from Texas, in Dublin. And of course, local radio has a key role but needs to get online in a serious way.

There is some talk, although a lot of doubt, that this may be a prelude to BBC launching a music download service too with the likes of 'Spotify'. Techcrunch have said it's denied and I'd trust that.

The app itself has some nice features - in particular a channel selector along the lines of the big old radio knobs which my Dad used to tune into 'Hilversum' (immortalised by Van Morrison), and foreign stations on an old wireless. A kick back that's nice. 

It also has an alarm to alert you to shows and an 'in depth' button that allows you go further into the content (archived shows for example). They're also offering "two way" conversions with the studio and redesigned homepages for each station. 

Radio owners need to be aware of this online competition and get into the space quickly. A lot of them "are there".... but simply.... because they think they should, rather than must. What's needed is a spirited attempt to gain audiences online over mobile Apps. Perhaps even an opportunity to come at this together rather than compete and giving audiences choices locally, on one App. Heresy or clever thinking?

Simple development of archive content, on demand music and features (like an alarm clock or trendy design) coupled with an Advertising campaign to promote their App, will pay dividends.

Their concern is that it might "bastardise" their existing offline listenership as the audience moves online. It won't, it will increase them - and anyway, a listener is a listener is a listener. Take them where you find them.

Because above all, if they do nothing, they're now in a hugely competitive space. As Zep says, "there's a lady whose sure, all that glitters is gold...."

Apple Iphone 5 about to launch. Their secret Iradio launched discovered. And this is much, much bigger.

 

Next week, Apple's CEO Tim Cook will unveil, what we now know, will be called The Apple Iphone 5. This is Apple's next generation phone to compete with Samsung's Galaxy S3 launched earlier in June and of course, facing possible bans in the US after Apple's victorious court case which I blogged about here: http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/08/court-ruling-apple-persist-samsung.html . 

It will also be compared Nokia's Lumia 930, launched this week, although the mobile phone pioneer, Nokia, has had its shares cut to "junk status". So hardly a competitor.

What we didn't know, was that Apple was secretly working on the launch of iradio, as big a gamble as itunes - but more of that in a minute.

The Apple Iphone 5 we know very little about except strong rumours. 

It's going to be taller than the current iphone with therefore, a taller screen and about 30% thinner. The connector gadget is getting smaller, with the connectors getting better, giving much faster wireless and ultimately, quick 4G connections. It's likely to have more RAM and a faster processor - so generally just a better phone.

More importantly, reports strongly suggest that Apple is planning its own internet radio service allowing it to compete in the music streaming business against people like Pandora, We7 (UK owned by Tesco) and Spotify.

What would happen is that people select tracks from a 'catalogue' and play them continuously via an internet feed or, more likely, it will feed you music based on your interests (as distinct from actually picking the track).

Rather than owning them or downloading them as in the itunes model, you get continuous radio based on what you like. 

Depending on whether Apple choose to go for the model where customers pick their tracks or instead, feeding them music based on interests, they will be a direct head-to-head with Pandora/Spotify. 

Spotify (where you pick your own tracks) loses money quite heavily due to music licensing issues whereas by feeding out music based on listener interests (Pandora), it has been much more successful.

Most of us know the type of music we like but don't know what we want. So developing internet radio based on a indication of preferences, seems to make sense. 

Other similar business saw share prices fall dramatically Friday, on foot of the news. Apple is such a good company, nobody wants to see it enter into the same space and even talk of Apple entering into online radio saw Pandora shares drop 18%. I think the radio option makes more sense (streaming you music based on your preferences) and indeed it's not that long ago when I chatted to Irish radio businessman, Dermot Hanrahan, who outlined exactly the same vision. Yet again, ahead of his time.

Online radio, iradio by Apple, will be a world beater and by being deeply integrated into their products, such as the Iphone 5, will guarantee distribution. Furthermore, if they get a lot of listeners to their iradio, it will also generate sales on itunes, as when listeners hear a track they like, they might want to buy it.

Great business.

Unlike the giants of old, Microsoft as a clear example, Apple do not sit on their hands. Innovation and invention precedes their greatness.