Trade Review: Week Nine (2/2)

Scotland's Indie Movie Theaters Team WithDistrify for Online Streaming Service

Distrify, a media-tech company focused on bringing entertainment content to more users through mobile accessibility has teamed up with independent theaters in Scotland. An attempt to raise awareness, interest and consumerism for the independent film market in Scotland, Distrify hopes that their business model and technological platform will bring a new facet to the VOD sector and create more revenue for theater exhibitors. Independent theate representatives in Scotland hope Distrify will be a successful investment, “[Distrify] gives us the opportunity to provide an extra screen – open all hours – showing films that we would not otherwise have the room to screen, or audiences simply couldn’t make it along to, or may have missed on the big screen” (Kemp). The independent theaters will make all movies that are currently playing in their theaters available to computers, tablets and mobile devices through a Distrify interface and subscription for about $6.00 yet it is undetermined if it will be per movie or per month.

Already a popular market, streaming videos and movies on programs like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and many more platforms are the basis to music streaming emerging as a profitable market. However, this market specific program and target audience for independent theaters in Scotland and their consumers sheds light on smaller markets looking to expand its outreach. This parallels to independent labels and start up bands embracing music streaming and peer-to-peer file sharing programs because the word-of-mouth characteristics of music streaming allows more content to be accessible to more users. I am interested to see how smaller marketplaces within the music industry and music streaming will utilize this similar business model for newer programs, applications and services to come. 

Trade Review: Week Nine (1/2)

8Tracks for iPhone Makes Finding NewMusic and User-Created Mixes Easy

8Tracks, a new iPhone and Android app that allows users to stream playlists created by other users is becoming a hot topic in the app market. 8Tracks encourages legal, peer to peer sharing of playlists that are tailored to specific moods, settings and events. With playlists themes ranging from parties to studying, 8Tracks hopes to take advantage of preexisting business models like social media and music streaming to attract more users by integrating both of these models into their interface. The biggest appeal to 8Tracks is that celebrities and DJs alike are creating playlists for their fans to listen to as a better way to connect with fans: “there's something special about listening to a playlist that's been curated by hand with real thought about how the songs flow together” (Henry).  8Tracks’ app lets users search for playlists based on song titles, keywords, artists or account names as a way to “find something new to listen to…connect with the DJ that created the playlist, stay up to date on new mixes as they're posted, and discover new songs based on what you're in the mood for” (Henry). However, the most interesting aspect to 8Tracks is that it will not charge an app purchasing fee, subscription fee, downloading or streaming fee, nor will there be any advertisements in the interface. This troubled me because I do not know how the company plans to obtain revenue to support the royalty payments owed to artists, let alone payroll for 8Tracks’ employees. 

Trade Review: Week Eight (2/2)

Is Music Streaming Good For Album Sales?

The notion of whether or not Spotify and other music streaming services are beneficial for artists is a heated debate filled with legislations, piracy, royalties and much more. The fact that websites like Spotify pay the bare minimum for royalties over a song angers labels and artists alike ($12.50 for 90,000 streams). However, what most industry executives and artists cannot argue with is the immense exposure music streaming provides for all artists. This article observes Mumford and Sons’ sophomore album sales and whether or not music streaming inhibits their sales. For their release, the record label executives permitted the full album, Babel, to be available in the same week as its release, a strategy most artists have strayed away from. The increased availability and accessibility allowed Mumford and Sons to obtain over 600,000 records in its first week and have six Billboard top 100 songs at the same time, which has not been done by a British band since the Beatles (McCallum).

Mumford and Sons’ record label, Glassnote, proclaimed they were absolutely thrilled with the results and believed music streaming encouraged more album sales due to increased accessibility. Consumers simply being exposed to Mumford and Sons’ second album is a modest statement, for the album was played more than eight million times in the first week on Spotify (McCallum). To put it into an even more impressive perspective, one of ten songs played in that week by all Spotify users was from Babel (McCallum). Smashing previous record holders on Spotify, Glassnote was thrilled with the results as it hints at international appeal, a strong fan base and the power of word of mouth in streaming services. Music streaming is exactly what a middle-class level band on the verge of superstardom like Mumford and Sons needed to throttle their career into the upper echelons of international artist recognition.

However, music streaming is not always beneficial for all artists, where some artists refuse to even make their content available on streaming sights as a way to maintain the traditional business model of the music industry. This is commonly found amongst superstar bands and musicians because they believe music streaming has a negative, chain reactive effect on multiple streams of revenue. Yet, from the Mumford and Sons case study, music streaming appears immensely beneficial for lower to middle level bands looking for incredible exposure and opportunity. Glassnote said despite minimal royalty payout from their eight million streams, the amazing exposure of music streaming would eventually increase other streams of revenue.