Columns
Business
Nigel Jopson
Lockdown listening Future income streams for production pros
Lockdown listening
Podcasting: Amazon vs. Spotify
Monetising Instagram
Analysis of the UK Official Charts Company’s music and consumption figures over the lockdown period show that, after an initial dip, audio streaming trended up — and is now above pre-lockdown levels, as isolating music fans make the most of their subscriptions. After a low in week 14 (when 2.097bn streams were served), streaming ramped up and has been above pre-lockdown volumes since week 16. Meanwhile, ad-funded (free to listen) streams grew in number in lockdown weeks 13 to 17, rising to 346m, 60m above their pre-lockdown level. “A number of those ad-funded streamers will convert to premium going forward, and probably already are,” Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) CEO Kim Bayley said in a recent interview with UK trade paper Music Week, “…what we’ve seen in recent weeks is more and more people subscribing to those services. Older age groups are deciding to subscribe for the first time and that’s all positive for the industry going forward. Our recent tracking study showed us that subscription numbers are still growing so I think that will continue through lockdown.” In the US, MRC Data found that 84% of people who added a new music subscription service in the previous two weeks said they’re likely to continue paying for it after Covid-19. Country music streaming has exploded since business and school closures kept US listeners at home; country audio streams were 21.4% above average in the week ending May 7. And artists who got busy in their home studios during the pandemic should release the new recordings — 42% of US respondents said they listened to new music from artists they never heard before.
Audiobook service Audible, acquired by Amazon in 2008, aims to challenge Spotify’s growing presence in the podcast business by investing millions in original content — “Audible Originals”. Audible has already purchased shows from documentary producer John Battsek, and from comedians Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish. “Audible is looking around at the landscape and seeing shorter content doing well, celebrity content doing well and they are being creative,” said Michele Cobb, executive director of the Audio Publishers Association. Axios reports Amazon is also interested in localised audio content for Alexa. Sources say the company is using its voice innovation venture arm (the Alexa Fund), to invest in local podcast companies. “It wants to explore short-form audio content that can be surfaced when users ask Alexa for information about topics like news and sports.” The company has also apparently evaluated investing in localised sports podcast companies like Blue Wire. Spotify has spent around $600m on podcast-related acquisitions in the past 18 months. Spotify’s podcast deals include acquisitions of Anchor FM ($154m), Gimlet Media ($195m) and Parcast ($55m) in 2019, plus Bill Simmons’ sports podcast The Ringer (around $196m) in Q1 2020. In May Joe Rogan signed an exclusive deal with Spotify, which will see his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, disappear from all other platforms. The multi-year deal is believed to be worth $100m, according to the Wall Street Journal. Rogan’s podcast, one of the most popular in the world, will arrive on the streaming giant on 1st September.
Instagram has announced it is testing ways that creators on the social media platform can share some of the ad-money they help the Facebookowned business make. This will be built around live videos, which saw a 70% increase between February and March as lockdown measures were introduced. Musicians who livestreamed over the platform have experimented with ways to monetise such activity (mainly by linking to merch), but to date there has been no direct option within the Instagram app itself. Now the company is testing digital badges fans can purchase during a livestream. Instagram will start testing the new ‘Badges in Live’ feature in June with a select group of creators and businesses. Access to Badges will expand across the US, Brazil, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Spain, and Mexico. In an interview with The Verge, Instagram COO Justin Osofsky said Badges will cost $0.99, $1.99, and $4.99 and that the platform won’t be taking a share of Badge revenue initially. “Live has helped creators and businesses stay connected to their followers and bring people together, with badges, creators can generate income from the content they’re already creating.” Live Shopping was announced by Facebook at the beginning of May, allowing businesses to set up a free online store, which customers can then access via either Facebook or Instagram. Over the coming months Instagram plans to enable access to Facebook Shops for creators who want to sell their own merchandise. Access to Facebook’s Brand Collabs Manager (paid partnerships) will also be expanded to help Instagram creators find potential brand partners.
14 / May/June 2020
