Deezer US CEO Tyler Goldman On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

You may not be hip to the streaming network Deezer yet, but it's available in 189 countries and has an impressive 6 million paid subscribers. Deezer's US CEO Tyler Goldman joins me for a conversation about the what's happening in streaming music now and what might happen down the road.

In the intro I'll also take a look at why the "Happy Birthday" song is not in the public domain and the new evidence that might finally get it there, as well as the things you should know if you're going to book your private studio out to other people.

Also, I'm happy to announce that the podcast has been selected as one of the Top 10 music industry podcasts by Indie Connect.

Remember that you can find the podcast at BobbyOInnerCircle.com, or either on iTunes or Stitcher.

---

Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this blog at no cost to you (just click here).

Like A Coiled Snake Spotify Strikes Back At Apple Music

If you thought it was a coincidence that Spotify released new and much improved subscriber numbers directly after the big Apple Music announcement at its World Wide Developer Conference, then you haven’t been paying attention to what many are calling the “Streaming Wars.”

At least in the short term, Spotify is still the market leader in the interactive music streaming space, and the company did its best to put an exclamation point on that fact by providing a lot of new information, strategically waiting a day for the Apple Music furor to die down a bit to steal a little thunder for itself.

At the end of last year, the company touted 60 million total subscribers, with 15 million of them paying the going rate of $9.99. That number far outpaced its closest rival in Deezer, with only 6 million paid subscriptions, and others like Rdio and Tidal that fall below the 1 million mark.

But Spotify’s new user numbers show a striking increase in a short time, with the company announcing it now has 75 million users, of which 20 million are now paid subscribers. This makes the company a major player even when compared to the non-interactive streaming side of things, as Pandora only sports 79 million total users, with the vast majority of those using the free tier. 

While user numbers are solid proof of growth, another part of the same announcement may be even more important. The company also reported another round of funding for $526 million, which places its valuation at around $8.53 billion (keep in mind that it has yet to turn a profit). 

Among the partners that invested in this round include Swedish telecommunications firm TeliaSonara AB and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth-fund, so there are some deep pockets with a large stake in the company’s success. Read more on Forbes.

---

Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this blog at no cost to you (just click here).

Muve Acquisition Makes Deezer #2 In Paid US Subscribers

Chances are if you ask a typical music lover if they know about the streaming platform Deezer they’ll reply, “Who?” Even though the French company seems to be the only service to seriously battle Spotify for streaming superiority in Europe, it’s still little known in the North America, although the fact is that it only launched here last September. 

That said, Deezer now becomes the #2 streaming platform in the US in terms of paid subscriptions with its recent acquisition of Muve Music from AT&T subsidiary Cricket for an undisclosed amount. Deezer will now add 2 million new paid subscribers to go along with the users in its Elite tier (although that number is undisclosed as well). As a reference point, Spotify currently has approximately 6 million paid US users.

What’s interesting is that Deezer actually seems to have a real market strategy in place, as opposed to most of its competitors. Muve now becomes the service’s entry-level tier at $6 per month, which is far enough below most other platform’s usual $9.95 to make a difference to a potential subscriber. If a customer wants talk radio or podcasts, the company offers a free app from Stitcher, other recent acquisition. Finally, Deezer offers high-resolution audio with its up-market $19.99 Elite tier, a distinct feature not found on most other platforms.

While Spotify has increased its paid subscriber base substantially in the last six months, much of that can be attributed to huge discounts in all of its paid tiers. Many analysts feel that its $0.99 Holiday promotion had the biggest impact on its subscriber surge, and wonder how sustainable those subscriber numbers actually are after the trial period has ended. A bigger question might be how many of them might be willing to try Deezer and if the difference between the services is sufficient enough to make a user want to jump from one to the other. Read more on Forbes.

10 Out On The Limb Music Business Predictions For 2015

Here we are again at the end of another year and it’s time to gaze into the crystal ball to see what 2015 might have in store for the music business. I hit on about half of my predictions last year, with most of the others still pending as the story lines developed slower than anticipated. Here are 10 music business predictions for the upcoming year. 

1. Apple launches a new music service. Beats Music doesn’t have a huge number of subscribers so it can be retired without fear of killing a well-liked brand. In its place Apple will launch a new on-demand streaming service that’s cheaper than the competition and features high resolution audio.

2. High resolution audio becomes a standard streaming feature. TIDAL and Deezer set the precedent, and soon all streaming services will offer at least one tier of hi-res audio. Of course, the definition of high resolution will continue to be a moving target, as some services equate the term with CD quality while others offer higher sampling rates and/or 24 bit depth.

3. The digital pie gets larger. As consumers become more comfortable with on-demand streaming, larger numbers of them register for the various platforms. More of them than ever are willing to pay for their service of choice than ever before.

4. Downloads continue to slide. Downloads fall below $1 billion in total revenue as music consumers find that having access to millions of songs is a lot better than owning just a few.

5. Vinyl soars again. Once only a blip on the radar of the industry, vinyl sales continue to grow to the point where they make a very small but significant contribution to the bottom line of many record labels. For the first time in 40 years, new vinyl production gear is produced to meet the demand. Read more on Forbes.

Deezer And Bose Agree To Help Each Other

In what looks to be a mutually beneficial arrangement, digital music service Deezer and audio products company Bose have agreed to partner, with Deezer’s Premium Plus product now available on all Bose Soundtouch and Soundlink products. As a result of the deal, Bose customers will receive the Deezer service for $4.99 a month with a 30 day free trial for one year rather than the standard $9.99 per month.

Talk about a synergistic arrangement, this one seems to be made in heaven for both companies. Deezer is now in the middle of a major push to launch into new countries worldwide, especially the US, and could take advantage of the Bose current market penetration. The Bose brand, on the other hand, is known for catering toward the higher end audio consumer who’s not quite an audiophile, but more discriminating than the average user. Deezer’s service touts higher quality streaming audio than most services, and its upscale Deezer Elite tier even promises a CD quality stream, the perfect feature to show off Bose products.

If you take notice, Bose is everywhere these days. The company made a deal with the National Football League for headsets and now every television sideline shot features at least one coach wearing gear with a Bose logo. In fact, the deal is so strong that the NFL recently barred players from appearing on camera while wearing the competition, and even fined San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick $10,000 for doing so at an after-game news conference. Beats by Dr. Dre (and now owned by Apple) headphones may be preferred by the players, but that company will no longer be getting free advertising at the hands of the NFL.

Bose Professional has also cranked up the volume as it has recently made a big push into installed sound. Once an also-ran in the sector compared to companies like JBL, the sound systems division has recently introduced a line of modular speakers and amplifiers designed for large venues and houses of worship. And don’t forget Bose noise-canceling headphones, which are the standard by which all others are measured. It’s rare not to see at least a few pair on just about any airline flight you take, despite their high price. Read more on Forbes.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

How Music Management Rollups Could Affect Music Tech’s Future

We’re living in a very interesting time in the music business. Unlike when the industry was caught off-guard by the MP3 revolution, the powers that be are totally on top of the one that’s happening now - streaming music - and they’re being proactive about dealing with it. Interestingly enough, they’re way ahead of the curve this time, even before the majority of the public. Let’s look at how this is playing out.

The first step in trying to take control of the situation came when the major labels pushed Spotify for an equity stake as part of the licensing deal that let it enter the US market. The labels weren’t about to lose control again like they did with iTunes a decade earlier, so this was a condition for the deal. Now with Spotify’s biggest competitor Deezer about to enter the US, you wonder whether the labels are asking for the same agreement. My guess is that they won’t get it this time, since they’re not in the same position of strength that they were even a year ago, as more deep pocketed competitors are already in the marketplace where there was no way the labels could get equity (like with the recently introduced iTunes Radio) and new ones are about to be introduced (like YouTube Music which had it’s deal in place before Spotify’s). 

A bigger problem for the record labels is that they’re no longer the pinnacle of power in the music business - managers are. Modern music management now includes many of the former duties of a record label, like marketing and promotion, as part of its core offering to an artist. And with artists now capable of ably recording their own masters without a huge financial outlay, the banking services of a label are no longer needed either.

That’s why some of the recent deals involving managers are interesting, because it can put them and their artists into a more leveraged position with the various music tech services. There are three very recent examples. Read more on Forbes.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.