PEERING INTO THE CRYSTAL BALL...
Another year, another sleepy January. With all eyes on Midem, the music business is slowly limping back to work after the extended Christmas party season. And MusicTank is no exception. Our next event, 'Monetising P2P: Where Do We Go From Here?' roundtable, takes place at Midem and straight after will be our first think tank of the year, 'The Great Digital Debate: How Do You Divvy Up A Download?'. So, while we are in a forward-looking mood, perhaps now is the ideal time to make a few industry predictions for 2007.
Let's get the obvious out of the way first. With the return of Glastonbury, bigger and better than ever, it seems only logical to assume that the live industry will experience yet another 'boom' year. Mobile music can only get bigger as well and, with Apple's iPhone finally unleashed, this could be the year that the mobile phone breaks through as music player of choice.
It's an equally safe bet to assume the MySpace / YouTube phenomenon will continue. With the consumer's appetite for user-generated content unequivocally proven, we're sure to see a plethora of new and exciting MySpace-style hosting sites emerge this year. Some of them may even offer a solution to the thorny issue of remunerating creators. Here's what we'd also like to see:
An industry which proves it can listen to its customers by abandoning technical protection measures as a viable method to lock-down content. More and more services (including, possibly, Amazon's upcoming music download component) are sure to look to the example of eMusic - as they pass their 100 millionth download mark it seems safe to conclude that selling the dreaded unprotected mp3 hasn't hurt sales. DRM for tracking usage is another matter, but surely 2007 will be the year technical protection measures die?
In keeping with the theme of listening to consumers, could this be the year that licensed P2P becomes a reality? Every year the IFPI inform us that more and more people are illegally sharing music. Has the time come to make ISPs, hardware manufacturers and the music business alike accept this fact and work together to find a way to monetise and decriminalise this black market stream?
We'd also like to see more interesting and affordable offerings for direct-to-mobile music. The mobile operators can be ruthlessly commercial, and this has driven up the prices of mobile downloads, but they can be equally competitive. Perhaps in 2007 this competition will drive down the price of downloading to mobile. In conjunction with this it would be good to see more varied purchasing options (e.g. subscription services, a mobile eMusic equivalent) as well as more exploitation of the market for user-generated content (e.g. a mobile MySpace equivalent - in terms of function and popularity).
Finally, we want advertisers to show us the money. The global television advertising industry is worth approx. 35 billion but more and more viewers are turning to the internet, YouTube and on-demand TV & movie downloads for their regular entertainment. With music either an integral part of this content's appeal or potentially offered as an added-value bonus, what models can emerge, what deals can be done, to ensure the music industry gets a decent helping of the advertisers' pie? Whether it's tapping into the live experience and generating more immediate sales, perhaps via mobile, or providing a more viable long- term version of SpiralFrog's online ad-funded model, there must be new ways to monetise music in 2007.
Another year, another sleepy January. With all eyes on Midem, the music business is slowly limping back to work after the extended Christmas party season. And MusicTank is no exception. Our next event, 'Monetising P2P: Where Do We Go From Here?' roundtable, takes place at Midem and straight after will be our first think tank of the year, 'The Great Digital Debate: How Do You Divvy Up A Download?'. So, while we are in a forward-looking mood, perhaps now is the ideal time to make a few industry predictions for 2007.
Let's get the obvious out of the way first. With the return of Glastonbury, bigger and better than ever, it seems only logical to assume that the live industry will experience yet another 'boom' year. Mobile music can only get bigger as well and, with Apple's iPhone finally unleashed, this could be the year that the mobile phone breaks through as music player of choice.
It's an equally safe bet to assume the MySpace / YouTube phenomenon will continue. With the consumer's appetite for user-generated content unequivocally proven, we're sure to see a plethora of new and exciting MySpace-style hosting sites emerge this year. Some of them may even offer a solution to the thorny issue of remunerating creators. Here's what we'd also like to see:
An industry which proves it can listen to its customers by abandoning technical protection measures as a viable method to lock-down content. More and more services (including, possibly, Amazon's upcoming music download component) are sure to look to the example of eMusic - as they pass their 100 millionth download mark it seems safe to conclude that selling the dreaded unprotected mp3 hasn't hurt sales. DRM for tracking usage is another matter, but surely 2007 will be the year technical protection measures die?
In keeping with the theme of listening to consumers, could this be the year that licensed P2P becomes a reality? Every year the IFPI inform us that more and more people are illegally sharing music. Has the time come to make ISPs, hardware manufacturers and the music business alike accept this fact and work together to find a way to monetise and decriminalise this black market stream?
We'd also like to see more interesting and affordable offerings for direct-to-mobile music. The mobile operators can be ruthlessly commercial, and this has driven up the prices of mobile downloads, but they can be equally competitive. Perhaps in 2007 this competition will drive down the price of downloading to mobile. In conjunction with this it would be good to see more varied purchasing options (e.g. subscription services, a mobile eMusic equivalent) as well as more exploitation of the market for user-generated content (e.g. a mobile MySpace equivalent - in terms of function and popularity).
Finally, we want advertisers to show us the money. The global television advertising industry is worth approx. 35 billion but more and more viewers are turning to the internet, YouTube and on-demand TV & movie downloads for their regular entertainment. With music either an integral part of this content's appeal or potentially offered as an added-value bonus, what models can emerge, what deals can be done, to ensure the music industry gets a decent helping of the advertisers' pie? Whether it's tapping into the live experience and generating more immediate sales, perhaps via mobile, or providing a more viable long- term version of SpiralFrog's online ad-funded model, there must be new ways to monetise music in 2007.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
