I would say that the opportunity to connect with new fans, build an audience and a live following, and sell merchandise is greater today than ever before. When a band’s only option was to sell physical copies of their music on the shelves of a record store there was limited shelf space and no ongoing relationship. Today, hundreds of thousands of artists can create and share their music, build playlists, engage with their fans and build careers using Spotify and the tools it offers to artists, managers and labels. Spotify allows great music to be discovered and find an audience no matter where it comes from. I’d say it’s the most democratic period for recorded music.
KEVIN BROWN
Head of label relations for Europe, Spotify
Free services supported by ads do not by themselves currently return enough value to the music community to enable labels to keep investing in new artists at the present level. Services like YouTube are building huge valuations based on demand for music, while giving little back to artists or labels. If free music is to work, it must be as a discovery tool that encourages fans to try and then subscribe to premium services, with more content and better features. If we get that balance right, streaming has the potential to drive sustained growth to the benefit of artists and labels, as well as fans. It’s a scale business: if enough households get used to streaming any music they want around their house, and having it on their tablets and smartphones whenever they want, then the future is very bright for British music.
GEOFF TAYLOR
Chief executive, British Phonographic Industry (BPI)
Trying to stop the tide from coming in would be futile, but we believe this is a tide that will float all boats. Even at this nascent stage of the market’s development, we are seeing real benefits for our artists, economic and otherwise. Certainly the economics are different, arguably challenging in the short term, but in the medium to long term the benefits will become undeniable. We’d prefer that exclusive or windowed album releases were no t part of this future, since it’s unreasonable to expect anyone to subscribe to more than one service, and they will expect their chosen service to feature everything they want. We also believe that the freemium model when it’s implemented well can be a valid tool for transitioning fans from piracy to paid services.
MARTIN MILLS
Chairman, Beggars Group label
Exclusivity of content fundamentally relies on exclusivity over that content’s distribution, but for digital media that ship sailed long ago. The hackers’ market that arose in the early 2000s via peer-to-peer piracy demonstrated the industry had lost exclusive control over its content. When major labels refused to engage with digitally distributed music and the new consumers that came with it, piracy filled the gap and the illusion of exclusivity tumbled. This illusion seems to be rearing its head again with the latest wave of music services and I can’t imagine the scenario would play out any differently. An exclusive on one legal platform is just a missing track on the others reducing opportunity for legal access. The idea of “exclusive” holds little weight with the hackers market, and consumers will go back to piracy if legal options keep pretending they’re in control.
DR JAMES ALLEN-ROBERTSON
Social media and web officer, University of Essex
