Is the future of music services centered on "bundle type"?

At the end of last month, Masayoshi Son, the chairman of the United States, announced that it would provide the contractor a special price of Spotify.It is good news from the user's point of view that valuable services can be used cheaply, but these partner styles (or bundles to other services) seem to have an important meaning in terms of financially stabilizing streaming music services.is.

No, if streaming music wants a long -term development, it will be a bundle for other services.

Spotify, Beats Music, Pandora ... All are loved by overseas, but both are in the deficit.

That's why each company pays tens of billions of yen for a huge music catalog.It is a natural measure to arrange the best libraries to acquire users, and expenses for that are essential costs.

So how many users have you actually gain?Pandora has 75 million monthly active users, and Spotify has 24 million.Unfortunately, they have not yet been exploring the gold vein to get enough compensation from the user.

Pandora is trying to regain a loss of $ 29 million (about 2.9 billion yen) with an overwhelming number of users.The company, which was established around 2000, is, of course, the same glue as a startup company.

On the other hand, I don't know how much profits are producing because SPOTIFY is private.However, it is certain that he has spent a lot of money by acquiring Red Zeppelin's monopoly last year and acquiring the music data company THE Echo nest earlier this year.

These investments are meaningful in terms of product improvement and market share, but does not change the sales curve.To be honest, in order for Spotify to maintain competitiveness, it will be forced to expand the service at the current price.

The financial problem of music services is not limited to these two companies.Last year, the same digital music service RDIO released some of the "important" assets to survive their own management and competitiveness, and began providing free streaming radio in Cuumras media.In January, a report suggesting that Beats Music users were higher, despite the fact that they focused on new enrollment.

Let's end the business talk here.The music services I mentioned so far are really good services.It's interesting, legal, and most songs are available.There is a reason why the profits of streaming music services are increasing even if the sales of digital music files are declining.The service is amazing, and more and more people are spontaneously paying monthly costs and listening to voice advertisements.Streaming services don't mean you can't make money.However, the current sales are not enough.

How do you keep music services that can be conveniently listened to music without committing the law and return to artists?

You may also think that the service will sell your own content, band T -shirts, concert tickets, etc. to make sales.But if you want to stabilize your cash flow, it will be an option of other service tie -up using a "bundle contract".At least for now.

たとえば、SprintとSpotifyが発表したディスカウント契約の座組しかり、AT&TとBeats Musicが今年始めに発表した業務提携しかり。通信キャリアの巨大なユーザベースが追い風となって、音楽サービスはある程度自立できるレベルまで月額課金ユーザを増やせるかもしれません。もちろん、キャリアと契約を締結した時点である程度の売上は見込めます。

Or, as another possibility, you will be able to completely stop the flat -rate services and incorporate them into a huge service provider package.There are rumors that Amazon will add music services to Prime members' services with a scheme similar to instant video.The purpose is to "take advantage of the service", but in this method, if sales are made as a whole company, there is no need to make money with the music service itself.Beats Electronics, which operates Beats Music, is currently raised by Apple.

It seems that both the music industry and the existing service provider are time to review the business framework itself.However, it is not so novel for large companies to bundle other services as their own added value.Even before Amazon Prime became the strongest product in the technology industry, cable companies distributed various programs on demands.Whether the music industry will follow the same path, it can be said that it is now on the crossroads.

新サービスの追加が新規ユーザ獲得や古いユーザのりテンション向上に寄与することは言わずもがなです。もしSpotifyがSprintユーザ向けに無料開放されるとしたら、SprintはAT&TやVerizon、T-Mobileといった競合と戦う武器を手に入れたと言えるでしょう。

At present, it is clear that the music service is in the crisis of survival.Music services, including Spotify, will soon or later run out of capital, and the paradise of the broadband World, where we live, may change a little.

MARIO AGUILAR -Gizmodo US [Original text]

(RUMI)