Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
G1 : Team 3
Sikha Bagaria | Malay Gala | Piotr Kanonowicz | Goh Hao Xuan Bernard | Joash Yeo ZhongJie
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Prepared for Bala Shankar
MKTG 204 - Services Marketing
AY 2013-14
A marketing approach to Music Streaming Services & Spotify
Overview
The Music Market: at a Glance 3
Digital Music 3
Streaming Music 4
Spotify: The answer to the digital music streaming 4
Industry & Company Analyses 4
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: 4
Porters Five Forces 6
Spotifys Service Blueprint 8
Service Recovery Policies 9
Spotify Service Standards 9
Analysis of Findings 11
Service Gaps 11
Hard and soft customer dened standards 13
Recommendations 16
Better communicating the way Spotify pays artists 16
A Better Pricing Strategy for Music Lovers 17
Growth Strategies 19
Audiobooks-on-demand 19
Education-on-demand 19
In Closing 21
References 22
Appendices 23
Appendix A: Consumer Survey Question Set 23
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The Music Market: at a Glance
There has been a huge transition in the music market, from physical music in
the form of CDs to downloading songs into MP3 players to, now, very widely
adapted, streaming. The sales of physical music in the form of CDs have been
plunging over the last decade. As of 2012, the physical music market lost nearly a
third of its volume (IFPI 2013:
7). Studies have also shown
that downloads have also
been decreasing yearly. So far
this year, 1.01 billion track
downloads have been sold in
the United States, down 4%
from the same time last year,
according to the tracking
service Nielsen SoundScan.
Digital Music
The market share of digital
music has risen by 22 percent
(US$ 4.2 bn) in 2008 to 57 percent
(US$ 5.8 bn) in 2012. Figure 1 gives us a clearer picture of how the digital market
has been taking over the phonographic industry. The parts of the bars which are
highlighted in red denote the
percentage sales of digital music in
the phonographic industry.
Figure 2 reveals that music
listeners have decreased music
downloads. Thus, downloads do
not contribute much to the revenue
of digital music, and streaming has
taken over. Streaming services
has grown by 62 percent from
2011 to 2012 according to the
current IFPI report (2013: 24).
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Figure 1: Recorded music sales(CD, Digital, Vinyl) in the US (2000-2012)
Source : Recording Industry Association of America
Figure 2: Yearly change in online music revenue by type
Source : Strategy Analytics Global Recorded Music Forecast 2012
Streaming Music
Last year, streaming and subscription services generated $1.03 billion in
revenue, up 59 percent from the year before, according to the Recording Industry
Association of America, and many of these providers are reporting robust growth
this year.
From Figure 3 we can see
that the sales share of
subscription and streaming
services in the digital music
market was 25.5 percent in 2012.
Music streaming services have
thus, started playing a more
important and crucial role in the
music industry. It is now
responsible for the changing
industry environment.
Spotify: The answer to the digital music streaming
Spotify is an online digital music streaming service that promises users
access to their favorite music on all their digital devices. It claims to be the rst
social digital music experience, with a deep integration with Facebook, which users
can use to share their favorite songs and playlists with their friends.
Spotify was founded by 28-year-old Daniel Ek in 2008 and currently boasts 24
million active users and 6 million paying subscribers. It also carries a database of
24 million songs with 20,000 songs added every day. Spotify is currently available in
32 countries.
In the online music streaming service industry, Spotifys closest competitors include
Pandora, Beatport, SoundCloud and Rdio.
Industry & Company Analyses
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats:
Strengths:
1. As evidence of its technological prowess, Spotify boasts a superior user
experience, based on a user-friendly interface, available on both online and oMine
platforms.
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Figure 3: Streaming music sales in the US (2000-2012)
Source : Recording Industry Association of America
2. Spotify also uses streaming advertising as a revenue source, just like
YouTube. Advertisements are placed before the actual streaming of songs begins.
Revenue from this source is shared between Spotify and the artists who choose to
upload their music to the site.
3. As opposed to downloading music using online torrents or le-sharing
websites, enjoying music on Spotify is a completely legal process. Users can also
enjoy music without having to download the les onto their devices.
4. A deep integration with Facebook and the ability to share music extended
to users provides Spotify with essential advantages over competition and helps it
make digital music a social experience.
Weaknesses:
1. Spotifys low royalty rates discourage artists from uploading their music to
the site. In the UK, on average, Spotifys royalty rates award about 0.4p to an artist
for every play of their song on the site. At this rate, it would take 250 plays of a
single song to earn the artist a sum of 1. In contrast, the iTunes Store awards
artists 10 cents for every download of a 99 cent song, which means the song need
only be downloaded 10 times to earn the artist a sum of $1. Consequently, the
Spotify music library is quite limited with respect to popular artists.
Opportunities:
1. Higher internet connection speeds worldwide encouraged the shifting
trend from downloading to streaming videos and movies online. This trend opens a
new avenue for people who like to enjoy their content online, without having to
download it. Following online video streaming, the streaming of music online is a
paradigm-shift in the way people enjoy music and has opened a lucrative, quickly
growing market for online streaming services.
2.The advent of smart devices like smartphones and tablets has also
encouraged the proliferation of applications (or apps), versus the previously used
software programs. Apps feature shorter download times and easier usability to
people with smart devices, along with easy access to the internet and
simultaneously running multimedia apps.
Threats:
1. Competition from other streaming services like Beatport, SoundCloud and
Rdio is a major source of competition for Spotify, as they all operate in the same
industry. The diferentiation of service design and delivery is the only way to gain a
competitive advantage and as such, a limited music library could be a huge liability.
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The iTunes Store, due to the vast popularity if iOS devices, is also a huge
competitor, albeit in a slightly diferent space.
2. The greatest challenge for players in this industry is to attempt to function
as a protable business whilst trying to fulll the needs of consumers who hitherto
have been accustomed to downloading and enjoying music for free or from trusted
sources like the iTunes Store.
Porters Five Forces
Competitive Landscape:
As an online music streaming website, Spotify faces erce competition from
other services in the same space such as Beatport, SoundCloud and Rdio. Spotify
is currently a leader in this particular market, but its position as leader might be in
jeopardy, given the limited nature of its music library. In this particular industry, it
would seem that the service that provides the best royalty rates for contributing
artists will have the best library, and thus have a competitive advantage over the
others.
The iTunes Store, due to its vastly popular and pervasive nature, also poses a
form of competition by providing easy and legal downloads of digital music to most
laptops and smart devices.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers:
In the context of an online music streaming service, the major suppliers for
Spotify are the contributing artists who choose to upload their albums to the
website and earn revenue through it. World-famous artists and music icons vastly
inuence the collection of music available online. Whilst Spotify is a great place for
new and emerging artists for promoting their music, established and popular artists
indirectly inuence the service delivery by choosing whether or not to upload their
music.
Bargaining Power of Buyers:
Spotifys customers are people who listen to music on their laptops and/or
smart devices, with an internet connection. The key challenge of operating in the
industry of online music streaming service industry is to function as a sustainable
and protable business model while catering to consumers who were previously
accustomed to acquiring their digital music through free, albeit illegal means. While
the legality of Spotify is attractive, whether or not a vast majority of consumers will
agree to pay money for streaming music online is still questionable.
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Threat of New Entrants:
By virtue of functioning online, Spotify and similar services have the
advantage of being accessible anywhere, as long as an internet connection is
available. The downside of being an internet organization is that the low barriers to
entry might allow new entrants to set up in the same space quickly and cheaply.
The advent of the world wide web makes e-commerce businesses easy and
afordable to set up and run, and anyone with a unique business idea and web-
designing skills can set up in any industry.
Threat of New Entrants:
As Spotify and other online music streaming services are the latest
phenomenon in the way we enjoy digital music, there is little threat to be expected
from any other products that function on a lower standard of technology. While
competition from the iTunes Store still remains, it is unlikely that any other products
will pose a threat to Spotify and its competitors unless they are built on a more
futuristic technology. Even among its competitors, Spotifys easy and familiar
interface gives it a decided advantage.
Please rank the importance of each service attribute to your decision to use Spotify
as a complement to your digital music.You can drag and drop the following
attributes.
1 being the attribute most important to you,
6 being the least important attribute.
- Price
- Accessibility
- Catalogue of Music
- Has local artists
- Connectivity to music server
- OMine Listening
13) Visualize yourself consideringusing Spotify to satisfy all your listening needs.
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Please rank the importance of each service attribute to your decision tosolely rely
on Spotify for your listening needs. You can drag and drop the following
attributes.
1 being the attribute most important to you,
6 being the least important attribute.
- Price
- Accessibility
- Catalogue of Music
- Has local artists
- Connectivity to music server
- OMine Listening
14) Are you familiar with what Music Streaming services can ofer you?
- Yes
- No
15) Are you considering using Music Streaming services in the future?
- Yes
- No
16) Visualize yourself considering to TRY using music streaming service for your
listening needs.
Please rank the importance of each service attribute to your decision to TRY music
streaming services.
1 being the attribute most important to you,
6 being the least important attribute.
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- Price
- Accessibility
- Catalogue of Music
- Has local artists
- Connectivity to music server
- OMine Listening
17) Visualize yourself considering to switch entirely to using music streaming
service for your listening needs, without relying on for purchasing digital music.
Please rank the importance of each service attribute to your decision toswitch
entirely tomusic streaming services.
1 being the attribute most important to you,
6 being the least important attribute.
- Price
- Accessibility
- Catalogue of Music
- Has local artists
- Connectivity to music server
- OMine Listening
18) Could you share a simple reason why Music Streaming service does not appeal
to you?
19) Age
28
20) Monthly Income
21) Employment
22) Minimum standards that you would require of a music streaming service that
you would pay for:
Song quality:
- at least 96 kbps, 160kbps, 320 kbps, not aware
Social & Payment connectivity
- Facebook, Google+, Paypal, Twitter, Not sure
Payment Plan:
- Flat Rate, Progressive Rate, Selective Rate
Service must work at least on these devices:
- Personal Computer
- Smartphone
- Tablet
- Not sure
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