There’s a door open to new music services
I read this quote by Mark Mulligan (Forrester Research) a while ago, and find it to be quite true. Just think of it… How many music services do we have, that really focus on the music experience, aside from the listening part?
Research has shown us that today people listen to music on more platforms than ever before (Millward Brown BrandAmp Study 2007). Another study lets us know that youngsters listen to music approximately 3.66 hours per day (Why do we listen to music?), and yet another, more recent study, tells us that people consume music three times more via YouTube than via legal downloads (Nielsen and Midem Study 2011). This tells me that there’s room for more music discovery in people’s lives, and that the door to that room is open, especially to services and music sites that let music consumers experience what they’re listening to, while they’re listening.
If you have a look at the Music Website Heatmap from 2010 (US) it shows that music consumption on the web is increasing as a whole (with one contributing factor being that the percentage of people that have internet access is growing, but still…), it also lets you know that watching is the new listening (again). Approximately 31% of YouTube videos are music videos. Roughly estimated, its size is more than 3 times everything else combined on the map.
This makes me believe that there’s a door open to new music services, or improved existing ones, that focus more upon delivering greater music experiences to consumers. What consumers would appreciate is not yet another streaming service that offers them a monthly listening subscription. What they would appreciate rather, is a music service that allows them to experience the music as a whole. Why not a service that takes them as close to a real gig as possible? Why not a service that offers pictures and high quality videos from gigs, festivals and perhaps documentaries as well?
Just think of it… If for some reason you missed out on a gig last night, or tonight’s gig is taking place on the other side of the globe, wouldn’t you like to experience that gig anyway?
There is probably a huge market for new music services, far beyond what we can imagine, and I welcome any new service that lets me get as close as I can to experience the real stuff.
Right now I’m actually a bit excited, because there is a service on its way that might meet my wish. It’s called Noisey.com, an online music discovery platform centered on concert videos. It’s launched by Vice, Intel and Dell and will be released at SXSW later on today. Will the site meet my expectations? That remains to be seen…
Written by: Sara Zaric
