1. T he
DISCOVERY
CHANNELS
Steps toward improving music discovery (and sales) on TV—a special white
paper developed by Billboard and NARM By Glenn Peoples · Illustration by Selçuk Demirel
M
usic discovery on TV seems so straightforward on paper: A interests most consumers surveyed. The
viewer hears a song of interest and seamlessly taps into a Key Points hypothetical service was described as being
connected to either a digital jukebox in a
wealth of information, then purchases the song or adds
it to a playlist on a subscription service.
Inside This public place or an interactive touch-screen at
a concert venue. Swiping a mobile device in
But the reality of getting from discovery to engage- White Paper front of these appliances would provide the
consumer with artist information and allow
ment or purchase is far more difficult. To connect listeners with music for easy purchase of digital downloads or
• iewers are eight times more
V
they desire, all stakeholders need to be linked—not just hardware likely to buy music at the moment merchandise. Eleven percent of respondents
and software developers and music service providers, but also music of discovery than at a later time. said they were extremely interested in such
supervisors, production teams, distributors and licensing services. a service, 15% were very interested and 36%
• Music discovery has moved somewhat interested. Only 39% said they
from brick-and-mortar stores were not very or not at all interested in such
Moving from the point of discovery to en- The Opportunity to digital media. a service. Cloud-based discovery services re-
gagement requires timely and accurate How big is the opportunity in music discov- • iscovery can be as basic as
D ceived an extremely or very interested rating
metadata to be provided to the distributor ery on TV? Here are some numbers, statistics text on a TV screen while still from the most avid music fans (52%).
or broadcaster. Or an integrated service must and trends that tell the story. being effective.
identify an individual song’s digital finger- New artists will benefit from improved
• The second screen has enormous,
print by matching it against a cloud-based Immediacy is king. Coincident, a developer discovery and monetization. Much dis-
untapped potential to offer
database and returning a host of information of software for video engagement on digital covery relates to previously unknown art-
immersive music experiences
A simple purchasing solution must be pro- platforms, found that viewers are eight times ists. NPD and NARM found that 42% of
related to TV viewing.
vided to hardware makers and software devel- as likely to buy music at the moment of dis- songs that caught listeners’ ears were from
opers that allows a consumer to purchase an covery than at some later time. The company • onnecting music discovery on
C unfamiliar artists compared with 25% from
MP3 on any given mobile device. Numerous experimented with placement and timing of TV with music purchases and favorite artists, 28% from known and liked
details must work perfectly for a person to song purchase options to gauge viewers’ reac- subscription services will improve artists and 5% from familiar artists. The
identify a song and quickly add it to a playlist tions. Coincident found that people were most monetization and engagement. more committed consumers tend to research
on a subscription service for future listening. likely to purchase a song when the opportunity • takeholders all along the value
S and buy music they hear and like, but more
The good news is discovery on TV pres- presented itself on a screen overlay rather than chain—metadata, hardware, casual consumers wait to buy—but usually
ents great potential. Consumers are showing choose to purchase using a buy button. “This applications, download stores end up buying nothing. Thus, new artists are
a desire to seek out music on TV. Such mu- underlines the growing understanding that and subscription services—must more likely to lose out on the opportunity to
sic-focused programs as “American Idol” and contextual opportunities to engage that are work cooperatively. get an immediate purchase or begin a new
the Grammy Awards are popular vehicles synced to specific points in a video are much relationship with the listener.
for discovery. Scripted shows, from “Grey’s more likely to result in a favorable action,” the
Anatomy” to “Mad Men,” offer immediate company concluded in a white paper. surveyed for an NPD Group/NARM study in The current state of discovery
connections to songs viewers wouldn’t have 2011 cited traditional retail sales as a top five and monetization
otherwise heard, as do advertising synchs. Digital music is growing fast. Discovery discovery source, and only 13% of physical When today’s TV viewers opt to identify a
But the technical pieces required for seam- can be tied into consumers’ love of buying shoppers cited brick-and-mortar retail. song, applications retrieve information from
less discovery are still being put in place, and and streaming digital music. U.S. consum- a cloud-based database to provide the con-
communication among all stakeholders is ers brought 1.2 billion digital tracks and 103.1 TV is a vital tool for reaching moderate sumer with basic song information, buy links
vital. This white paper is intended to highlight million albums in 2011, according to Nielsen consumers. The NPD/NARM study found and possibly access to related YouTube videos
some of the key players, describe the poten- SoundScan. Internet radio is going main- that TV is particularly valuable for target- and song lyrics. But most of the discovery is
tial gains, identify the significant pain points stream—Pandora has 150 million registered ing the mainstream consumer, women and taking place in ways that don’t integrate the
and suggest solutions. It was undertaken as a users and 51 million active users. Subscrip- brick-and-mortar shoppers. In aggregate, TV many platforms a single viewer may engage
joint project among Billboard, NARM’S Digi- tion services have millions of users and are shows and TV music channels—not includ- with on a regular basis. A viewer’s cable TV
talMusic.org division and TAG Strategic. The growing fast. ing advertisements or infomercials—are in- doesn’t communicate with his Pandora,
content is based on a session at the National f luential in discovery for 49% of consumers. iTunes or Rhapsody account and doesn’t
Assn. of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) Discovery has moved from physical retail That’s second only to AM/FM radio (60%). synchronize with a smartphone or tablet app
conference, Music Biz 2012, titled “Music to digital sources. Consumers rely more for an engaging second-screen experience.
TV: Enabling Discovery for the Connected on TV for discovery compared with the days Consumers are interested in cloud-based Much of today’s music discovery is relatively
Consumer” that was organized by Digital- when brick-and-mortar stores were more plen- discovery. The NPD Group/NARM study old-fashioned—and quite effective. Music
Music.org and TAG Strategic. tiful and important. Only 8% of consumers found that simple, cloud-based discovery video tags on the screen, for example, provide
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3. real-time song identification in MTV’s original
programming. The feedback from the audience
has been good because viewers don’t feel the ID
users with a set list, a live blog and a free remix
of Madonna’s single “Give Me All Your Luvin’.”
The USA Network drama “Covert Affairs” uses
Metadata is a key ingredient in discovery
on connected TVs. Rovi, owner of All Music
Guide and Muze, has a team that enters artist
Hey, I Like That! How Today 42%
tags take away from the story, MTV executive Shazam to give viewers additional content. The and other song data as well as album reviews The top six ways to discover music
5%
VP of music and talent Amy Doyle says, noting, Shazam logo—a capital “S”—appears in the into a database. The company has created ap-
“Our audience is used to multimedia tasking.” lower corner of the screen during the show as plication programming interfaces on top of
MTV uses its online and TV properties to aid a call to action. Through Shazam, USA has data so consumer electronics manufacturers
discovery, Doyle adds. Not only does MTV offer given viewers playlists of music from the show and app developers can access its data, Rovi
song ID tags on its shows, it offers on-demand and behind-the-scenes videos with the cast. solutions architecture director Michael Pap-
access on MTV.com for a deeper dive to take Both Shazam and SoundHound provide ish says. If the client has an ID (e.g., UPC,
advantage of awareness gained from editorial links to buy identified tracks at either iTunes Rovi ID), it summons the cloud and accesses
or music video. “Then it’s up to them where (on iOS apps) or Amazon MP3 (on Android the data it wants. Clients can send snippets
they want to go across the MTV screens to find apps). Not every query results in a purchase, but of audio and Rovi will do a real-time search.
out more about that artist and interact more,” the purchases add up when an app has a large “Discovering actual music fits into the over-
Doyle says. In addition to install base. In September all strategy of interactive TV,” Papish says.
MTV.com, MTV offers two Viewers are 2011, Shazam CEO Andrew Another way of identifying content that
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
eight times
mobile apps to aid discov- Fisher told news site paid- airs on TV is through an automated content
ery: MT V PUSH, which Content that the service recognition service like the one provided Traditional AM/FM 60% movies 29%
highlights up-and-coming
artists, and Music Meter, an as likely to was getting 4 million song
identifications per day that
by Audible Magic. The service uses digital
fingerprinting technology to identify audio
tv shows/videos/channels 49%
Friends/family 40%
youtube 23%
free online radio 22%
app that measures Internet
activity and ranks artists ac- buy music at resulted in a song purchase
between 8% and 10% of the
within any particular frame that matches
the sample against its registry. Being able
cording to “hotness.”
Editorial aids discovery at
the moment time. In all, he said, Shazam
users purchased $100 mil-
to identify audio at any given point in a TV
program creates the opportunity for time-
MTV, too. The PUSH pro-
gram spotlights new artists
of discovery lion of digital music per year
through the app.
based applications for personalization, so-
cialization, engagement and interactive ad-
velopers as TV.Plus, Miso and Yap.tv create
TV companion apps that provide contextual,
and exposes them across than any vertising. Myspace owner Specific Media is real-time information on the shows people are
properties. Some acts have
seen a big impact. Mac Mill- later time. There are two technologi-
cal approaches to plat-
working with Audible Magic and Panasonic
to integrate a Myspace app into the TV that
watching. Twitter and Facebook have become
popular platforms for TV shows, especially
er’s Blue Slide Park album forms and billing: verti- recognizes a song playing in a program and music awards shows. The Grammys in Feb-
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with cal and horizontal. A vertically constructed connects the viewer to that particular artist’s ruary generated 13 million comments on the
sales of 144,000 units (according to Sound- company like Apple has everything integrated Myspace page. “It’s version 0.1 right now, but two leading social networks, up 2,280% from
Scan) after being a PUSH artist. in its devices with Apple billing for Apple con- people are trying to connect the dots,” Au- the 2011 Grammys, according to social activity
sumers. Google and Amazon are increasingly dible Magic VP of marketing and customer tracker Bluefin Labs. The Academy of Country
Song lyrics are among the most-searched vertical, too. This approach can also be seen in support Jay Friedman says. Music’s telecast on April 1 generated 676,000
items on the Web. A fairly low-tech but effec- Sony’s Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited But “smart” TVs, or connected TVs, are only social media comments, up 331% from the
tive way of finding a song is to search for it in services that allow a single account to be ac- as smart as the data and technology provided to prior year, according to Bluefin.
Google or another search engine. Many websites cessed on Sony hardware—DVD and Blu-ray them. “These smart devices are really dumb de- Tracking song plays has both business-to-
are devoted entirely to song lyrics, thus making it players, PlayStation 3—as well as Web and vices,” Friedman says. “They don’t know what’s business and business-to-consumer implica-
possible to locate a song heard on TV by search- Android mobile devices. playing. You have all these apps, but that singu- tions. TuneSat offers a proprietary identifica-
ing for fragments of lyrics. Such question-and- The horizontal approach may present the lar interface you have in the living room, all these tion service in 13 countries that constantly
answer websites as Quora are also helpful: A per- most opportunity because it currently has the devices connect to that TV set, but that TV set monitors live broadcast feeds, executive VP/
son asks about a song in a particular commercial most friction. “It’s a bit of madness for us,” says knows nothing about what’s actually playing.” COO Chris Woods says. The service can even
and others can leave the answer. Vickie Nauman, president of North America identify music buried under layers of other
for 7digital, which provides white-label solu- Companies have spent years learning from audio. Rights owners who want to ensure
More than 200 million people around the tions for MP3 purchases and streaming across their experiences with different platforms. they’re getting paid for performances use the
world use audio identification app Shazam a variety of platforms. Nauman says the biggest Rhapsody’s TiVo integration was an early com- service. Woods says case studies show that
to identify songs using their mobile device. hurdles are “all of the other things” that are re- bination with a connected device that taught up to 80% of music broadcast on TV is never
Apps like Shazam and SoundHound offer a quired to link discovery and monetization: ac- the company a lot about the technology and reported to performing rights organizations
popular way to discover and purchase music. count linking, management of the transaction, execution, Maples says. User engagement has because submitting cue sheets is a manual
Shazam is now working with TV producers and ensuring the money is collected and that every- been fair but the market isn’t mature enough process. “It’s literally impossible for produc-
advertisers to offer richer second-screen expe- one gets paid. “The complexity and herding of to make an impact. Without widespread adop- tion people to report this with a high degree
riences. For example, Pepsi’s Super Bowl ad cats means we take on a lot of that complexity.” tion of the platform, a one-off integration can of accuracy. It falls through the cracks.”
offered a second-screen experience with a full Discovery on connected TVs is in its early be “incredibly costly,” Maples says. TuneSat also enables consumer-facing prod-
song and video in addition to social features. stages. “We haven’t reached our iTunes App Companies that develop second-screen ap- ucts by bridging multiple platforms. “We are
Shazam also enriched Madonna’s Super Store moment with the TV,” Rhapsody VP of plications will find a TV audience well attuned monitoring for the use of nearly 20 million song
Bowl halftime performance by providing app product Jon Maples says. “It’s really fractured.” to multitasking while watching. Such app de- titles on hundreds of TV channels in 14 coun-
tries in real time,” Woods says. “We license this
data and enable app developers, broadcasters
The Road To Discovery . . . And Sales DIGITAL MUsic Service:
PURCHASE DOWNLOAD ACCESS STREAMS
and content distributors such as cable and satel-
lite companies to integrate instant music iden-
tification into their products and offerings.”
Pain Points
A number of significant pain points inhibit music
MP3 discovery and the intercompany processes that
facilitate discovery and monetization.
Remote control mechanisms are problem-
atic. Connected TVs often have a controller
that’s archaic and multi-buttoned that doesn’t do
much other than control the TV and channels.
C R E AT I O N PRODUCTION B R OA D C AST/
D I ST R I B U T I O N M E D I U M
H A R DWA R E /
S O F T WA R E
CO N S UMER A remote provides limited ability for onscreen
navigation and search. Moreover, some consum-
Artist, Songwriter, Production Company TV or Film studio, TV, Audio ers may not want additional content like artist
Label, Publisher Music Supervisor Cable or Satellite Company Recognition Software biographies on their screen during a program.
credit tkb
16 | billboard | may 26, 2012
16 | billboard | monthtk XX, 2012 photograph/illustration by TK

4. 5%
’s Consumer Discovers Music ‘Catch Them In
When a person heard a song he
or she liked enough to listen to
0 10 20 30 40
Discovery requires information for conversion.
Question: What would make you shop more
50 60
Two Clicks’:
again, the artist was . . . often for new music?
Opportunities
Announcements on AM/FM 54%
For The Future
25%
T
Buy single to get discount on
album later 23% hink two, three or five years ahead
42% Facebook updates about new and consider the ways that devices,
music 19% applications and services will work
together to deliver a more information-filled
5% Recommendations from online discovery experience to TV viewers. Here are
28% services 17% some things to watch for in the coming years.
Seeing Billboard chart at 1. Ease of use will dictate the success of
store 11%
discovery and monetization strategies. “For
Emails from retailers 11%
the foreseeable future there will be many dif-
favorite 25% familiar 5% ArtIsts using Twitter 4% ferent user experiences,” 7digital president
known/liked 28% unfamiliar 42% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 of North America Vicki Nauman says. “Some
Source: NPD Group/NARM Research Report on Consumers and Music Discovery, November 2011 people want to buy something immediately,
5%
and some people want to bookmark and add it
to their Last.fm playlist or Spotify playlist. There
Cue sheets are holding up innovation. Cue mon post-discovery action was passive—29% is to create an interactive experience that ties will continue to be a lot of different options.
sheets, the list of music featured in programs, of consumers said they waited to hear the song the program to the second screen during the We’re seeing across all [options] it’s ease of use
are often finished after the date of broadcast. on the radio. But there is proof consumers creative process rather than after postproduc- that’s the driving factor that makes a difference
50 60
Daryl Berg, executive director of music at TV take action upon discovery—23% said they tion, Audible Magic’s Friedman says. In other in whether something will be successful.”
production and distribution company Shine went to an online video site like YouTube, 22% words, the producers would start to contem- 2. Companies need to address many dif-
America, says music departments are often looked for the artist using a search engine and plate interactive features and what content ferent demographics and types of consumers.
understaffed and producers need incentives 15% went to the artist’s website. It’s important could be added to the second screen when pro- “The challenge before is not either/or, it’s to
to complete them on time. not to miss a chance to convert interest into ducing the show. Examples of second-screen build all these new models and superserve the
a purchase, Lakeshore Entertainment senior content are information and e-commerce op- consumer,” Lakeshore Entertainment senior
Discovering independent and unknown VP of music and soundtracks Brian McNe- portunities of featured products, cast biogra- VP of music and soundtracks Brian McNelis
artists takes even more work. According lis says. McNelis says he requires his team phies, historical information of the setting and says. But serving each group of consumers will
to the NPD Group/NARM study, 42% of mo- to limit a consumer purchase to two clicks. coverage of the artist and songwriter behind take flexibility. “The top 10% of most commit-
tivated discovery involved unfamiliar artists the program’s music synchs. This approach ted music fans are also probably the biggest
while the remainder—58%—involved artists Incentivize producers to complete cue would solve the problem of cue sheets being pirates,” McNelis says. “If we’re not going to
the listener already knows or likes. It stands sheets well before the time of broadcast. unavailable by the time a program is broadcast. get them back, if the most committed con-
to reason that lesser-known artists would Producers are short-staffed and don’t always sumers are already gone, we better figure out
benefit from improved discovery tools than have the resources to complete cue sheets, The cost of discovery could be built into how to get the rest of them. That’s why mak-
50 more established acts.
60 Shine America’s Berg says. Enticements could the service. On average, consumers favor dis- ing a tighter weave on the Net so we can catch
be direct monetary incentives through sales, covery models for which the cost is included them in one or two clicks [is so important].”
How To Move Forward although that’s problematic because digital in the music or merchandise (30%), accord- 3. Don’t forget about albums. The
Getting to the future of music discovery on music revenue can be split only so many ways. ing to NPD/NARM research. They are less Internet is a medium for singles. But people
TV will require teamwork on the part of all The incentive could take the form of promo- interested in a one-time annual fee (20%), don’t fall in love with artists just because of
companies in the value chain, from the pro- tion received from the network or featured watching advertisements in return for the singles, Shine America executive director of
viders of metadata to the services that stream, artists in advance of broadcast, by letting service (20%) and a small per-use fee (19%). music Daryl Berg says. “You fall in love be-
sell and store digital music. Here are the best fans know what songs will be included in a Having the fee included in a monthly phone cause of a song and their next song and their
places to start, according to the experts. program, for example. Or the label and artist bill was the least desired payment method next song that you have a 45- or 50-minute
could buy into the video and create a revenue (9%). Committed music fans are the most experience with. If we keep feeding people
Focus on connecting consumers to music stream for the producer, says Eric Hanson, open to including the fee in a monthly mo- on a song-by-song basis . . . we’re not going
at the moment of discovery. Consumers a former manager at Microsoft who worked bile bill or one-time annual fees. However, to build artists.”
need to hear it, be exposed to it and know what with the video-on-demand service available on they’re far less interested in the per-use fee, 4. Tomorrow’s TVs will provide new
it is easily. Once they do, they need an easy Xbox, Zune and Windows Phone. This is only indicating an expectation of high usage for opportunities. Sets with next-generation “4K”
way to access the music through their prod- a stopgap solution, however. Improving the which such fees would be cost-prohibitive. resolution debuted at the Consumer Electron-
uct/service of choice, be it iTunes, Amazon, delivery of manually created, labor-intensive ics Show in January. Contemplating where to
7digital, Spotify, Rhapsody, Amazon MP3 or cue sheets lacks the potential of automated Integrate subscription services with dis- display information on a 3-D plane is interest-
another store or service. “All of those steps are digital services that can replicate the process. covery. Windows Phone, for example, has a ing, Audible Magic VP of marketing and cus-
the problem that needs to be solved,” 7digi- Shazam feature that connects to the Zune sub- tomer support Jay Friedman says. “You can
tal’s Nauman says. Find technological solutions to cue sheet scription service, Hanson says. “That’s where really enhance the experience. You can over-
problems. For example, Soundmouse is a the magic happens.” TV viewing app Miso lay information in front of the plane in a way
Integrate discovery with mobile apps. Sec- Web-based service that aims to “provide ef- connects viewers to a currently playing track that’s less distracting than [typical] overlay.”
ond-screen viewing circumvents the limitations ficiencies to significantly reduce the head- on Spotify. As an increasing number of music 5. Platforms and devices will be con-
that networks have with displaying additional ache and costs in terms of time and resources fans use on-demand subscription services as nected to deliver a better experience. Music
information (e.g., artist name, song title) on- needed to manage, report and distribute cue a home base for cataloging and listening, it’s services already have millions of songs. Now
screen while a song is playing. Networks often sheets,” according to its website. Soundmouse logical to connect the moments of discovery it’s up to developers to connect music collec-
need to reserve the bottom third of the screen helps producers enter cue sheets more effi- to the preferred mode of listening. Subscrip- tions with discovery moments. “What would
to promote other network programming. ciently and gives broadcasters a standardized tion services can enable repeat listening to the be really great is that your TV or device learns
format for improved reporting and analysis. songs identified with apps like Shazam and more about what you like, and starts recom-
Shorten the distance between discovery But, again, addressing problems with manu- SoundHound. Songs identified by these apps mending,” TAG Strategic managing partner
and purchase. NPD/NARM research has ally created cue sheets is more of a stopgap could be turned into playlists. Subscription Ted Cohen says. “How do you get me to the
found just 15% of consumers purchased a solution than long-term progress. services can build playlists of recommended music I like quickly? But more importantly, how
music download upon discovering a new art- songs and artists based on identifications. App do you get me to that music that I’m totally un-
ist or new release and just 11% streamed the Producers can bake interactivity into the developers will need to work with subscription familiar with and make a connection?” —GP
song from a music website. The most com- creative process. The next phase in discovery services to enable these functions. ••••
credit tkb
may 26, 2012 | www.billboard.biz | 17
monthtk XX, 2012 | www.billboard.biz | 17