Only 1 In 4 Spotify Users Pay

Spotify is growing and it now has more than 60 million subscribers, but how many of those actually pay? It turns out that about 25% are paying subscribers, bringing the figure to around 15 million, which was a substantial increase over the previous year. What's more, that's still a lot better than Pandora, which runs at about a 10 to 1 paying subscriber ratio.

That said, Spotify has been running discounted deals for the better part of that time period, so basically no one is paying "retail" for their subscription. The big question is, what will happen when the prices go back to normal?

The other major looming question is, what will happen when Apple's Beats service is reloaded and launched this year, along with YouTube's Music Key? Will the increased competition stunt Spotify's growth?

If I had to wager on it, I'd say that all of those concerns will factor into a tougher year for the platform in 2015.

Here's a infographic from Statista that shows Spotify's recent growth.

You will find more statistics at Statista

Releasing An Album On Dead Formats

It's been quit the thing to do in recent years to release an album on a format that was dead and gone. For a while that was vinyl, then 8-track was the thing to do. No one would be able to play it, but it was good for the PR value.

But how about release an album in just about every format ever used? That's what British musician Trevor Jackson did with his new Format album, making it available in no less than 12 different delivery formats.

Format is available in three sizes of vinyl (12, 10 and 7 inch), CD and mini-CD, reel to reel, USB stick, cassette, VHS, MiniDisc, DAT and 8 track. If none of those work for you, it'll also be available digitally in March.

It'll be interesting to see how many of each format is actually sold (my bet is that VHS and DAT will be the least), but it will be even more interesting to find out just how many of those buyers actually played the thing.

The album is being released by Jackson's label The Vinyl Factory, and actually doesn't have any new material, since it's made up of remastered and re-edited tracks from his previous records.

This might seem like just a PR stunt, but it got us talking about it, so it worked. That said, it still has a way to go to compete with OK Go's DNA album, which was literally released as organic DNA.

A New Twist On Social Concert Apps

There are apps to help you find concerts, there are social apps, and there are dating apps. Most of them cross over a bit, bit they all stay in their particular specialization. So what if you want to go on a date with someone in a low pressure environment? If that's you, then meet Wego Concerts, which arranges a date at a concert you'll both enjoy.

Fans connect to the free services through their Facebook page, and the app then probes your iTunes library to create a musical profile of you to make recommendations to concerts that you'd probably like to see. You have the ability to edit your playlists before anyone else sees them (which can be handy if you're a closet Justin Bieber fan), then you set your dating preferences - male/female, age, etc.

At that point you're able to browse through a range of people in your area with similar musical tastes. Users seeking dates have a heart surround by a pair of headphones so they can be easily identified, but you can look for other like-minded people to share the concert experience as well with no dating in mind.

One interesting thing that the app developers have found is that the romantic connection is deeper if the act they see together isn't that well known.

I'm not sure how they're monetizing this app, but anything that helps people go to shows can only be a good thing.

Rock Still Leads In Music Consumption

While it seems like a country and pop world when you listen to the radio, it's a completely different planet when it comes to total music consumption across all delivery platforms, according to a study by Nielsen Music. The study selected the top musical genres looking at albums, track equivalent albums (downloads) and streaming equivalent albums. This is what was found:

1. Rock - 29%
2. R&B/ Hip Hop - 17.2%
3. Pop - 14.9%
4. Country - 11.2%
5. Dance/EDM - 3.4%
6. Christian/Gospel - 3.1%
7. Holiday/Seasonal - 2.6%
8. Latin - 2.6%
9. Jazz - 1.4%
10. Classical - 1.4%
11. Children - 1%

When it comes to actual album sales, Rock had a commanding lead over the next closest genre with 33.2% over R&B/Hip Hop's 13.9%.

This goes to show that consumers of the Rock genre are used to buying albums and are still most comfortable consuming their music that way. That said, Rock consumers have embraced streaming as well at 24.7%, just behind R&B/Hip Hop's 28.5% and ahead of Pop at 21.1%.

While Rock may not have any artists in the top 10 of almost any overall sales chart, as a whole, the genre is still vibrant. In fact, since it no longer relies on a few huge sellers to prop up the numbers, it might actually be healthier than many of the other seemingly more popular genres.

Most Music Discovery Still Comes From Radio

While we're increasingly living in a streaming world, radio is still our go-to source when it comes to discovering new music, according to the latest study from Nielsen Music. 51% of Americans still discover most of the new music they listen to via radio, even though on-demand streaming increased by a whopping 54% last year to over 164 billion streams.

The study also found that 243 million people age 12 and over tune into radio every week, which is 91% of the population within the top 250 markets. Of that, 23% listen in the car, while 16% listen to the radio at work.

What are the top radio formats? No surprises here, according tot he survey.

1. Pop Contemporary Hits Radio (CHR) - 12.3%
2. Country - 9.8%
3. Hot Adult Contemporary (AC) - 7.1%
4. Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio - 6.7%
5. Adult Contemporary - 5.9%
6. Urban Contemporary - 5.8%
7. Mexican Regional - 5.2%
8. Alternative - 5.0%
9. Classic Rock - 3.9%
10. News Talk Information  - 3.5%

Of these 10 formats, Country Music grew the most significantly in the first half of last year, especially for listeners in the 18 to 34 age group.

It appears that radio is very music like the music business in that its demise is consistently predicted, yet it never seems to go away. Just like the music business, it continues to evolve and roll with the times.

Neil Young’s Pono Finally Launches, But Will Anyone Care?

Noted music artist Neil Young’s pet audio project Pono Music finally launched with a big sendoff at this year’s CES show, complete with a website full of high-resolution downloads and an unusually shaped player that will be in the stores on Monday. That’s all well and good, but will there actually be a market for the offerings? 

It’s difficult to start a new music service these days, and Young should get props for following through on such a laudable idea. Anyone who creates music on a high level (especially music using real instruments and players) hates to hear what happens to it after most audio compression algorithms that are in use today get hold of it. So much of the emotional impact that the artist lived with during recording is drained from it as frequencies are literally stripped away in order to decrease the file size. 

That said, artist’s have traditionally always had a complaint about the final distribution package sold to the public, whether it be vinyl records, cassettes, CDs, downloads or streaming. It just never sounds the same as in the studio, although many will tell you that the current state of digital music distribution is the worst it’s ever been in that regard.

The fact that Young has followed his heart and tried to do something about this is very cool. The problem is, Pono the company seems to be selling the ecosystem as a mass consumer product when there’s about zero chance it will be received that way. Here’s why.

1. It’s now a streaming music world, but Pono Music is a download service. No doubt that when Young first conceptualized Pono downloads sounded like a good idea. However, in 2015 there’s no sign that fans will come rushing back to the format any time soon when they’re just discovering that they can have millions of songs at their fingertips for anywhere from zero to 10 bucks a month via streaming. Which brings us to…

2. It’s expensive. First you have to buy the Pono music player at $399, which is far more than the majority of music consumers want to pay considering that their phone has become their playback device of choice. There’s also a lot of player competition on the market for less money (check out the FiiO series of players). Not only that, then you have to buy the music that you want to listen to from the Pono store and it’s not cheap (anywhere from $18 to $25 for an album and $1.99 a song). Considering that you can purchase the same album for $7 on Google Play, the cost of the extra audio quality will be a non-starter for many. See more on Forbes.

Albums Don't Sell Anymore, Unless They do

The 2014 sales figures are in and album sales have dropped another 11%. If you look at that figure you'd think that the album as a concept is done for, except that there are 3 examples that shows that the right album by the the right artist can still sell even in this Music 4.0 age of streaming. For instance:

1. Up until November there wasn't a single million selling album by an artist (the Frozen soundtrack aside) and none were even close. Taylor Swift then released her 1989 album and sold more than 3.6 million copies in less than 2 months. Sam Smith's In The Lonely Hour also edged above 1 million at the last minute.

2. Adele's 21, which was released in 2011, went on to sell more copies in 2014 than releases by Mariah Carrey, Sia, or Skrillex. The total sales now exceed 30 million units, which many said would never happen again.

3. The best selling compilation album of 2014 was one that was released 30 years ago! It was Bob Marley and The Wailer's Legend.

Also interesting was the fact that 41% of all albums were digital downloads last year, the same as 2013.

What this goes to show is that there are fans who will still buy music if it touches them in just the right way. Unfortunately, just as in the rest of music's history, no one can predict what they way is as it's a constantly moving target.

PJ Harvey Sells Her Recording Sessions

One of the things that the new digital economy has taught us is that people value experiences more than products. In fact, many times consumers are willing to spend far more for an experience than they would ever spend for a digital product, considering that many think digital products should be free.

This was recently illustrated once again when PJ Harvey offered her fans a look into the recording process for her next album - for a price.

PJ made 3000 tickets at around $22 each available, and the demand was so great that it took her server down as it sold out in a few hours. There was a limit of 4 tickets per household, with two slots available per day for the length of the project.

Obviously this isn't something that a new artist could do, but for an established artist, it's a way of recouping at least the costs of recording and maybe more.

Of course, it will be interesting to see the reviews after fans have to watch a couple hours of the same part being played over and over, or the engineer doing a tedious Pro Tools vocal comp or edit. They may decide it's not exactly must-see TV.

Using YouTube's Audio Library

Click To Enlarge

YouTube has become quite the profit center, thanks to the Content ID feature that determines if someone is using one of your songs on a video. You then have the ability to either force the video to be taken down, or monetize it (and you keep all the money). Until recently, the problem was that most YouTube users didn't know what songs were available or what might happen if they used them before they uploaded their video.

That's all changed as the platform's Audio Library now allows someone to check on the availability and consequences of using a song on their video before they even make the video.

The video library now offers a array of free songs and sound effects, as well as outlines the availability of popular songs.

As you can see from the screen shot the left, the Library now shows in what territories an ad-supported popular song is available, if you can monetize the video or not (which is usually never), and the current popularity of the video.

For the free category, you have the option of hearing the song, searching by genre, mood, instrument or genre.

If you want to check out your own music, just put the song or artist name in the search box.

The Audio Library can be found by going to Creator Studio, then looking under the Create category.

Beatport To Offer A Streaming Feature

In an interesting development, the DJ/EDM portal Beatport will soon be launching a new streaming service. The feature will be part of Beatport.com, which currently offers downloads of beats and songs used by DJs and EDM producers everywhere.

Contrary to what you might thing, the streaming feature is not intended to compete with other streaming services like Spotify as a "jukebox in the sky." Instead its aimed at professional DJs who want to access a library of beats and songs on the fly.

Artists and record labels will be paid if a song is streamed, since this will be a paid service, although the royalty rate has yet to be revealed. Currently the Beatport library is composed of 90% independent label material.

Beatport was purchased by SFX Entertainment in 2013, and the company has steadily tried to revamp the service. It now consists of Beatport Pro, a desktop media manager and player for DJs, and Beatport.com.

This is an application for streaming that hasn't been tapped yet, so it should be interesting to see how well it works in real life with sometimes flakey Internet connections.

How Much Time Do We Spend On Social Media?

People are much more comfortable online and with social media than they've ever been before, but what does that really mean? A Cowen and Company poll across all age groups found out exactly how much time we spend on social media and which platforms benefit the most.

• All age groups spend about 42.1 minutes per day on Facebook, with millennial's (ages 10 to 29) dedicating 51 minutes to the platform.

• In a surprise, Tumblr finished second overall, with 34.2 minutes per day

• Instagram was next with 21.2 minutes per day

• Pinterest received 20.8 minutes per day

• Twitter narrowly beat out Snapchat for 5th place (17.1 to 17 minutes)

• Surprising, the alternative Ello came in next at 13.2 minutes per day, although the platform (which promises no advertising) is used predominantly by 45 to 60 year olds) 

• LinkedIn comes last at 9.8 minutes per day

What this means is that people spend a good bit of time on social media, but you probably can't reach them if you don't have a plan.

Once again, just being on social media doesn't mean that you're using it for promotion (if that's what you want to do and it's important to your music brand and career). Starting next week, I'll give you a number of concepts that will help you to reach more of people online, engage them, and convert them into fans.

Happy New Year! Hello 2015

I want to wish every who reads this blog a very happy and prosperous New Year.

We're all striving for the same thing - to be part in the creation of some great music - and hopefully this blog helps you a little along the way.

As always, if you have any suggestions as to how I can improve this blog so it helps you even more, please send them to me at office @ bobbyowsinski dot com (sorry there's not a link as I'm trying to avoid the spammers).

Let's make 2015 be the best year ever!