Category: markets
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The Dog in the Manger
Nobody ever claims to have contributed to a traffic jam, despite all the evidence around them when they are doing so. And clearly had they not contributed, the jam would have been less of a delay for everyone, especially them. So it is with yearly summaries of markets; the great temptation is to see the…
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Digital Music in 2015
Some ‘state of the nation’ observations about where we seem to be at the end of 2014 in the world of digital music: 1. Only an extreme optimist would make a meaningful bet on the recorded music industry as a whole growing significantly in the next few years. Sales of downloads are likely to show…
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Streaming Payouts Need Some Simple Tweaks
Continued debate about how to share revenue generated by on-demand music streaming services is less enlightening than it could be, mostly because it is conducted in an almost information free context. We don’t really know how much money is being brought in, how it splits between subscriptions and advertising, or what’s in the deals that…
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The New Starmakers, and the Story of a Song
Spotify took to its blog October 2014 to let the world know that if the ants have megaphones, in Chris Anderson’s rather superior phrase, Spotify’s megaphone is bigger. A ‘curated playlist’ had driven a track up the charts in the world’s biggest music market. The track was Waves from Mr Probz, and it would be wrong…
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Of Course a Stream is a Lost Track Sale…
The long drawn out crisis in the recorded music industry continues, and one of the much debated questions is whether people are subscribing to streaming services instead of buying downloads and CDs. If they are, the worry is that the amount of revenue and the way it is shared might damage the recorded music industry…
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MAD versus RAND: Structures of Competition in Music
The more legislators intervene in copyright regulation the more chimerical seems the notion of a ‘fair and transparent’ market for creative work that also delivers economic growth. Perhaps they just need to try harder, or perhaps buried in the megatonnes of comment and consultation there are a few very small and simple ideas that might…
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A High Price for Free Music
To the ‘feels like free’ crowd, two examples from the summer of 2014 have shown just how strange and illusory is the ideal of a music market with no barriers to consumption and no price to the public. Barriers, it turns out, are sometimes valuable to patrons and sponsors, and costs to the public are not exclusively…
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To Get Paid We Should Set Music Free
Digital music, having started out as a tied product with iTunes and Windows Media locking the files to devices and software players, achieved a certain freedom as DRM came off, but is now migrating fast back to proprietary encrypted formats. These locks benefit only their owners and operators. Switching from Spotify to Rdio, or Rdio…
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YouTube Sends a Depressing Message About Music
This month (May 2104) saw the surfacing of another argument between the organised independent record companies and a wholesale customer, in this case YouTube. The accusation, that YouTube had given the major labels better terms then they were offering indies, was wearyingly familiar; as was YouTube’s reported response, to offer ‘take it leave it’ deal terms…
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Downloads versus Access? Follow the Science AND the Money!
One of the big debates in music is whether the download is dead, killed by ubiquitous connectivity and streaming services. Certainly the expensive (>$0.5) download seems to have plateaued, and streaming revenue is growing strongly tempting new entrants who bring with them investment in better consumer experiences. The end game, goes the argument, is that…