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INTRODUCING THE STREAMING BUSINESS
THE SHIFT TO STREAMS CD DOWNLOAD (a la carte) STREAMS (subscription & ad-funded) The story of recorded music over the last fifteen years has been all about the shift from the CD to the stream
THE SHIFT TO STREAMS Worldwide the shift is still ongoing PHYSICAL DIGITAL CD STREAM But the key trend for a few years now has been IFPI 2017 FIGURES
THE SHIFT TO STREAMS CD DOWNLOAD (a la carte) STREAMS (subscription & ad-funded)
THE DIFFERENT STREAMING SERVICES
PAID FOR STREAMING SERVICES Spotify and Apple Music are the big paid-for streaming services. Though there are plenty of others to choose from eg Deezer, Tidal. Most offer a similar sized catalogue of music for 10 a month with student and family discounts. In terms of royalties, these are by far the most lucrative for the artists, songwriters, record labels and music publishers.
FREE STREAMING SERVICES The free-to-access services - paid for by advertising - have many more users but generally generate much less income for the music industry. YouTube is the biggest in terms of users. Vevo is separate, though most people access it via YouTube. Then you have the free versions of premium services like Spotify. Soundcloud and YouTube now also offer premium services.
SERVICES WITH LESS FUNCTIONALITY OR CATALOGUE In the US the personalised radio services are huge most notably Pandora and iheartradio. These offer less functionality than the on-demand streaming services. Amazon offers various options including a smaller catalogue as part of Prime and cheaper streams locked to its Echo device. People have also experimented with less music for less money services.
SERVICES ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD Although YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify and Apple Music are the big players in streaming globally, in some markets there are important local services too. These include: QQ Music (China) Line Music (Japan, Thailand) Saavn (India) KKBox (Taiwan, Malaysia)
APPROXIMATE USER NUMBERS YouTube 1,800,000,000+ (not all music consumers) VEVO 400,000,000 SoundCloud 175,000,000 iheartradio 100,000,000 Spotify Freemium 95,000,000 Pandora Freemium 67,000,000 Spotify Premium 87,000,000 Apple Music Premium 50,000,000 Pandora Premium 6,000,000 Napster Premium 3,500,000 Deezer Premium 3,000,000+ Tidal 1,000,000+
GETTING YOUR MUSIC STREAMING
LET S TALK ABOUT MUSIC COPYRIGHT Every time you write a song you create a copyright. Every time you record a track you create a copyright. So there are two sets of music rights. THE SONG RIGHTS (aka publishing rights ) THE RECORDING RIGHTS (aka master rights ) Created by artists and managed by the record industry Created by songwriters and managed by the music publishing sector
COPYRIGHT GIVES YOU CERTAIN CONTROLS OVER YOUR WORK REPRODUCTION DISTRIBUTION RENTAL ADAPTATION PERFORMANCE COMMUNICATION
MUSIC LICENSING Whenever another person or company wants to exploit one of your copyright controls So they want to reproduce, or distribute, or rent, or adapt, or perform, or communicate one of your songs or your recordings they need to get your permission. You charge for your permission (aka licensing) which is how copyright makes money.
DIGITAL LICENSING A digital service streams recordings of songs. So a streaming service needs to get permission to exploit both song rights and recording rights. A stream is BOTH reproduction + communication. So when a streaming service gets its licences covering song rights and recording rights, it needs to make sure that the licence covers both the reproduction and the communication controls.
YOUR MUSIC: YOUTUBE AND SOUNDCLOUD You can get your tracks into YouTube and SoundCloud directly by setting up and monetising your page. YOU + YOUR TRACKS SET UP PROFILES DIRECT ON THE PLATFORM MONETISE PROFILES TO SHARE IN AD AND SUBSCRIPTION MONEY
YOUR MUSIC: ALL THE OTHER SERVICES With the other services you need a distributor it provides your tracks and collects your royalties. YOU + YOUR TRACKS
YOUR MUSIC: REMEMBER YOUR SONG RIGHTS If it s your song, you are also due publishing royalties these will be paid via your collecting society. YOU + YOUR TRACKS PRS COLLECTS COMMUNICATION ROYALTY MCPS COLLECTS REPRODUCTION ROYALTY
YOUR MUSIC: IF YOU SIGN WITH A LABEL OR PUBLISHER If you sign with a record label and/or music publisher they will take over these relationships. YOU + YOUR TRACKS RECORD LABEL (DISTRIBUTOR) MUSIC PUBLISHER MCPS PRS
WHAT S THE DEAL?
THE STREAMING DEAL LABEL/PUBLISHER/SOCIETY Revenue Share Minima Guarantee Advance? Equity? Fees?
THE STREAMING DEAL The most important part of the deal is the revenue share bit. Every deal is different and these rates are usually secret. Although, generally RECORDING: revenue share of 50-60% SONG: revenue share of 10-15% Remember it is revenue share based on consumption share...
THE MONTHLY METRIC 1 How much money did the DSP make? How many streams were delivered? 2 How many times were your tracks/songs streamed? What percentage of total streams were your music? 3 That percentage of total income is allocated to your repertoire You are then paid a slice of that money according to your revenue share deal 4 What are you due under any minimum guarantee deal? If that is higher the DSP pays you the higher amount
MAKING MONEY FROM STREAMS It s all about SUSTAINED LISTENING and REPEAT MICROPAYMENTS. SALE DIGITAL DOLLAR ACHIEVED ON DAY ONE STREAM DIGITAL DOLLAR ACHIEVED ON DAY????? You need to persuade people to keep re-playing your music. How can you do this? Use your gigs, your socials, your playlists.
GETTING THINGS STARTED
ACTION POINTS Write some great songs, record some great tracks. Get them onto YouTube and SoundCloud and monetise your profiles. Get your music into all the other streaming services work out which distributor type works for you. Join PRS and MCPS to get your publishing royalties though this costs money ( 100 each), so you need to think when it makes sense to get signed up.
ACTION POINTS Promote your music on the streaming platforms at your gigs, on your socials and website, etc. Remember premium services pay more. Maybe use YouTube to promote Spotify content. Set up playlists featuring your music and music that inspires you making it easier for people to find you. Find ways to encourage people to add your tracks to their personal libraries on their streaming platform.
REALITY CHECK Driving sustained listening is a challenge. Streaming income is likely to be nominal until you start securing significant numbers of streams. Though it quickly starts to mount up if and when you get some traction around one of your tracks. In the meantime there are other benefits such as marketing, data and engaging the industry.
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