Blowin’ in the Wind
Music and Platforms
If music be the food of love, play on;Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.That strain again! it had a dying fall:
ACT I SCENE I- Twelfth Night- William Shakespeare
Of course, after a discussion of Platform and Love, we should have a deliberation over Platforms and Music. We have seen extraordinary developments in entertainment industry in general and music in particular over last few decades of recording technologies , followed by internet and now cloud based platforms.
BTW, if you listened to music in 90’s and still remember Lucky Ali, watch this small clip floating around on internet.
Hmm, shaam-sawere teri yaadein aati hain
Aake dil ko mere yun tadpaati hain
O Sanam, mohabbat ki kasamSunoh- Album by Lucky Ali, 1996
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DTW
During the Week, the Universal Music Publishing Group announced that it had signed a landmark deal to purchase Dylan’s entire songwriting catalog.
This is an important development because like good-old Cold War’s arms’ race, now there is a “content” race in the entertainment business world.
"We get to monetize [our subscription video] in a very unusual way.When we win a Golden Globe, it helps us sell more shoes. And it does that in a very direct way. Because if you look at Prime members, they buy more on Amazon than non-Prime members, and one of the reasons they do that is once they pay their annual fee, they're looking around to see 'how can I get more value out of the program.' And so they look across more categories they shop more. A lot of their behaviors change in ways that are very attractive to us as a business. And the customers utilize more of our services."-
Jeff Bezos,Vox's Code Conference, June 2016
This is obviously Amazon’s way of using music on its platform and obviously very successful application of one side of business to subsidise an additional non-core side to create network externalities.
I think Music and Platform relationship could be understood through multiple sides of current music businesses- Artists, Producers, Listeners and Businesses. As usual, I have tried to draw a rough sketch of how these relationships interact with each other in the image below.
Production side of the Music Business consists of musicians and music producers/intermediaries. Ventures which mediate between artist and other stakeholders have grown over last few years. Firms like Royalty Exchange (royalties marketplace) and Hipgnosis (publicly listed song fund ) have created businesses to generate connections and subsequent income streams. Youtube uses Content ID system made possible by deals made between YouTube and content partners who have uploaded material to YouTube database and thus help in identifying third party content using copyrighted material. Multiple streaming services like Gaana (through Ganna Exclusives) have turned into original content producers for smaller and/or lesser known artists.
Consumption side includes individual and business users. Platforms have democratised music listening over last decade. Anybody with an internet connection has access to the world’s top music talent without resorting to piracy or compromising on quality of content. Streaming services like Gaana , Spotify etc have revolutionised music industry and created huge demand for music content. Similarly, advanced technologies of digital mastering and AI-enabled recommendation engines have made it easier to track content usage by brands and other businesses. Short video format platforms like TikTok have moved fast to have licensing deals with major labels to enable TikTokers and now must work out to share its revenue streams with top creators, while also producing optimal results for brand partners. Last year Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt-starrer Gully Boy pioneered new brand engagement based on music and partnered with a spate of new-age brands including Zomato.
Future of Music and Music Platforms is Discovery, Reflection and Heroism!
OTW
Over the Weekend, I watched the Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions. I loved the deep dives by Taylor and her collaborators into the rich tapestry of stories throughout Folklore coupled with a series of live performances recorded with key collaborators on the project.
While we were still absorbing her momentous folklore album, she released her new album evermore. That makes it 36 songs and one documentary in four months while being struck at home/studio during pandemic. Take a bow, Taylor Swift!
There'll be happiness after you
But there was happiness because of you
Both of these things can be true
There is happinesshappiness- evermore-Taylor Swift, 2020
I Love You
Shailendra
PS- We had an interesting discussion with Satish Raju, ex-India CEO- SwissRe in MountainSpeak Season 3 Episode 7. In his own words- An IIT-IIM grad would be busy climbing the corporate ladder but G Satish Raju has on occasion dropped through the gaps to see what else is happening around; sometimes just hanging on to, sometimes stumbling across the rungs. He reflected on the need to look for Resilience Models rather than Role Models. After all, resilience encompasses all the qualities we cherish in our role models.
What an inspiring session!
You may want to watch the recording at this link and sign up here for the next set of interesting conversation on Second Sunday of the month.
Definitely Sir. I think owing to a mass appeal, Spotify is emerging as the next big thing. However, in a manner of speaking, at a time when piracy was somewhat frowned upon, Napster was also a huge hit. I think should the platform have the ability to diversify and cater to a range (as well as penetrate into a variety of customer segments) of music genres and take geo-specificity into account, it could emerge to be something that endures. The only question to be assessed is until when can the user actually identify with what you are providing with a backdrop of competitors in the market.
Now the shift in terms of music has also changed as far as consumer needs and perception is concerned. This has even led to a branching out and inception of new sub genres. Thus, it is not about how well a musician can play his instrument but how well he can spin tracks and be a DJ. Thus, the production aspects have become more important. So the platforms that give more publicity and help to these much sought after artists would actually do better than their market competitors in that aspect.
Your articles are always amazing to go through Shailendra Sir.
The session was really very inspiring sir! There is one famous quote in Sanskrit which says "A person devoid of interest in music, literature and arts is indeed an animal without horns and tail", this is an importance of music and now a days music streaming platforms are bringing lots of creative content, trying to give customized service. This article reminds us the class discussion on Spotify and that discussion with our alumni Bhaskar Mallik on Gaana and Unacademy deal.