Seminario di Cultura Digitale - Pisa - 2016

1. Music, Digital Culture
And The New Economy
Anne Jacqueline
annejacqueline@gmail.com

2. 1.Old Economy, New Economy

3. The Old Economy of
The Music Industry
• 3 majors recording companies dominated the
market: Sony, Universal Music and Warner
• An economy of property
• Products made for mass comsumption
• Recorded music is what supports the artist, live
music is an additional source of income

4. The New Economy:
Main Actors, The GAFAs
1976 1994 1998 2004

5. A Platform
Devices (terminals)
Hosting and services
What They Have

6. What They Want
• That you spend more and more of your
time on their platforms and / or their
terminals (tablet, smartphone...)
• That you feel happy about it
• So they can sell you more of their
services (and products)
Everybody listens to music. It doesn’t need translation. It is
thus an attractive service for these platforms.

7. The New Actors of
The New Economy
1999
The world main e-trade plateform.
They sell only space.
The world biggest media.
You create the content.2004
2009
The world biggest taxi service.
They don’t have any car.
2008
The world largest hotel service.
They don’t have any property.

8. Other Important Actors:
Tech Companies
Streaming plateforms:
• Youtube (Google)
• Spotify
• Deezer
• Yuku (China)
• Yandex (Russia)
• Naver (South Korea)
Social networks:
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• Vine
Technical services:
• Bandcamp
• Mailchimp
• Songkick
• Kickstarter, Indiegogo...
• Bandzoogle
• Sonicbids
• Reverbnation
• Shazam
Information plateforms:
• Wikipedia
• Musicbrainz
• Discogs
• Genius

9. The Artist In The New Economy
Recording music:
• Home studio
• Virtual instruments
• Tools such as Auto-Tune
(Cher, Believe, 1998)
• Mp3
Distributing music:
• D2F (direct-to-fan)
• Streaming
Getting fans:
• Social media
• One-by-one
• Ad campaigns on
Facebook,Youtube...
Making money:
• Live music
• Selling albums, EP
(extended play), singles
• Synchro

10. Streaming: The Value Gap
0 $US
0,00 $US
0,01 $US
0,01 $US
0,02 $US
$
0,0010,001
0,006
0,015
Deezer
Spotify Premium
Spotify (Ad-supported)
Youtube
average figures, in dollars (2015)
WhatThe Platforms Pay PerTrack

11. Youtube: The Bigger Value Gap
4%
96%
Youtube Streaming services
71%
29%
Users
(2014, IFPI*)
Revenues Paid To The Labels
(2014, IFPI)
IFPI : International Federation of The Phonographic Industry

12. 2. The American Hegemony

13. Headquarters of
The Music Tech Companies

14. English, The Main Language of The
Digital Economy
• Search engines (and filters) are
built on the structure of the
English language
• Most of the (good) tools are in English
• Most of the (interesting) information is in
English, including: reportings on the music
industry and how-to information for
artists / labels

15. Perspective:
Metadatas Are Cultural
"World Music" on iTunes
WE ARE HERE
iTunes defines:
• Music genres
• Languages
• Conventions on the names of
the artists

16. Geographic Scale
USA: 9 631 420 km2 - Italy: 301 230 km2
The USA are about 32 times bigger than Italy

17. Privacy, USA vs. Europe
Have you ever read the user agreement you sign when you register
with Google ? Facebook ?
In the USA, personal data has a commercial value; in Europe it is to be
protected.
Guess who is winning ?

18. Local Laws vs. US Laws
• The stores on which music is distributed (e.g. iTunes) are based in the USA
and obey the American law.
• Therefore, artists and labels have to comply to their local laws and the
American laws (+ the rules of the stores).

19. 3. The Illusion Of Free Music

20. People Listen To Music On:
3%
12%
9%
23%
53%
Downloads
Subscription streams
Ad-supported stream
Other
Mobile personalisation
Global Digital Income by Sector,
IFPI, 2014

21. Services People Have Access To:
0 %
15 %
30 %
45 %
60 %
Video sites Streaming sites Download services
26 %
38 %
57 %
IPSOS* survey in 15 markets, 2015
*IPSOS : survey and marketing institute
Users

22. Italian Recorded Music Market
0
25
50
75
100
Subscription Free streaming Download Physical Total
93,9
50,7
15,18,3
19,8
75,4
41,3
14,79,410
2014 2015
Jan - Sept. € M (Deloitte*)
* Deloitte : audit and consulting firm

23. What’s Free Music ?
• Piracy, P2P (peer-to-peer)
• Youtube and other video services (Vimeo,Vevo...)
• Ad-supported streaming services
• Free downloads (offered by the artists...)
• Free streaming services, such as Soundcloud

24. Free ? Really ?
You pay for:
• Your device: computer, tablet, smartphone
• Accessories, such as headsets or speakers
• Electricity
• Internet

25. Really?
It’s on the internet?
It’s free?
YOU are the product.

26. Streaming & Algorithm
• the "listening profile": tracks
you listen to, hours you listen
to, where you listen to, on
what terminal, and how you
listen to music.
• music news: articles, radios...
• artists and relevant music
styles: (https://
artistexplorer.spotify.com/)
• the tracks themselves:
acoustics, tempo, can you
dance on them ?
Understanding how the users listen to music

27. Behind Algorithms,
Recommandation
• 5 to 10% of users are active
ones: they know what they
want to listen to.
• 90 to 95% are casual: they
come to listen to an album,
but, what’s next ?
• Personalized radios (by artist, by genre...)
• Theme playlists (jogging, evening...)
• Ongoing playlists: Flow, I’m Lucky, Instant Mix, Spotify Fresh Finds...

28. Behind Recommendation,
Big Data
• Recommandation
• Prediction
• Personalisation of apps and services
• Targeting on common interests
(instead of: age, genre, geography...)
• Marketing campaigns in one-to-one
mode
From data analysis to data monetization

29. 4. From Money Economy
To Time Economy

30. From Ownership Economy to
Access Economy
• In the 1980s and 1990s, users needed to buy (own) music: vinyl, or tapes,
then CDs
• Fans had to buy the whole album even if they liked only three songs
• Now they just need to have access to a library (free or not), and they can
choose to listen to what they want in huge catalogs
• People who still buy CDs and vinyls usually do it:
- for the souvenir: e.g. at the end of a concert
- for the object itself: e.g. limited editions packages

31. From Money Economy to Time
Economy
• The largest music company is Live Nation, a 360° business, that is
originally a concert promoter
• Recorded music used to be the main source of an artist’s income,
with live music as a supporting resource. It is now the other way
around
• Selling recorded music to the general public can not be an artist /
label first goal
• Instead, the artist / record label has to focus on having fans give
him / her time and attention

32. Engage, Engage, Engage
• Lady Gaga & the little monsters on Twitter
• Pomplamoose onYoutube
• Gotye : Somebodies - AYoutube Orchestra
• Pharell Williams, 24h of Happy
• Tiromancino on Facebook

33. Fans Like To Help
• Patreon
• Crowdfunding services for one time projects, such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo,
etc
• Artistic collaborations
• Name your price policy
• Fans like to do things with music: e.g. mixes, etc.

34. 5. Your Trademark,
Your Digital Data

35. Music Is Not Enough
• Good music no longer sufficient to break through
• Artist needs to have a story (storytelling) / a universe to share with fans =>
that’s his / her trademark
• And the ability to connect with them

36. Metadatas
• Identify your music in catalogues that have billions of tracks (iTunes,
Spotify...)
• Allow (future) fans to find your artist
• Allow Content ID systems to match your music with catalogues, and thus,
to pay the artist

37. Analytics:
Getting to Know Your Fans
• Part of the data you give to platforms is given back to you:
- Google Analytics
- Facebook Insights
- Youtube

38. 6. Working In The Music Business
Today

39. Every Minute On The Internet In
2014
• 4 millions of search requests on Google
• 2,5 millions of shares on Facebook
• 300 000 tweets are published
• 220 000 new pics are uploaded on Instagram
• 72 hours of video are posted onYoutube
• 200 millions of e-mails are sent

40. Your Main Competitor
Internet is (mostly) about cats (and holiday pictures)

41. Local, Regional, International &
Back
• Local / Regional is where the artist usually start (concerts), but once his /
her music is on the web it’s also available globally
• Which means paying attention to:
- Languages / translations
- Rights management
- Public domain laws
- Contracts

42. Mastering Time
• Internet does not work well with last
minute requests
• Chain of people working after you
• Time needed to populate websites

43. Precision
• Writing for internet is specific
• Internet does not work well with
errors
• It doesn’t take more time to do
things right
• Or be prepared to manage the
artist’s anger (hint : it takes more
time)

44. Keeping Up With The Changes
• Google Alerts,Alerti
• Newsletters & Blogs such as : CyberPR, Mailchimp...
• Informational Websites :
- Techcrunch for information on digital companies
- Music Think Tank for how-to articles on online music business

45. Welcome to The Digital World :-)