How streaming transforms music marketing (part 1)

PRE-STREAMING

In the pre-streaming era, the music market was a constant flow of “push and pray”.
1. In label side, they would use the single as the shortcut to finding an audience on which to propel the artist, and even more importantly, their latest album.
2. In radio stations side, they were largely in lockstep, since they would rather play the “catchiest” hits as well as help build familiarity for those hits (those that got through dreaded call-out research).
Still, neither side really knew which songs audiences would take to their hearts. The signal was foggy, at least until the record reached the shops. Even then, it was hard to know whether people liked the music, or just didn’t know about it.

POST-STREAMING

The single biggest change brought by streaming is the clarity of the signal. It is clearer now which songs people really like. However, the challenge for marketers is to have enough direct levers they can pull to make the new world order tip in their artists’ favour. They have very few direct levers and are at the mercy of gatekeepers, influencers and other layers that sit between their songs and the audience.

Problem | Solution #1: MANAGING LINEAR DECLINE (hmm relevant to US market only)

The emergence of streaming platform lead to the erosion of linear radio and TV’s contribution to music marketing effectiveness. The solution is obvious – either work with radio to improve its relevance, or get better at playlist pitching and see radio as a bi-product or bonus, not an essential. With playlist pitching getting harder, perhaps the former option is actually the better one.

How can radio improve its relevance?

1. Currently, radio is the only large-scale media that labels have for reaching national audiences at a shared time and place. But radio’s rolling playlist slots are too low in volume. One simple change would be for labels/publishers/managers to convince radio brands to expand their playlists to accommodate many more slots for new music.

Radio can compete with streaming only if they could increase their capacity for song discovery by trading off new songs with catalogue plays or heavy rotation hits – ‘track of the hour’ rather than ‘track of the day’.

2. Given the change of the market, radio providers must use their brand equity and identity to serve super-niches, and serve them better – be it genre, demographic, a particular scene, theme or location. The most successful will begin to stem the loss in audience reach, but also fill the gaps left by streaming services to hold onto those audiences in terms of engagement and emotional attachment.

Problem | Solution #2: MANAGING STREAMING ECONOMICS AND HIGHER SONG VOLUMES

Streaming has shifted consumption away from albums to single tracks and playlists. The role and ROI of marketing single tracks versus an album are dramatically different.

1. When it comes to playlisting there is much more real estate available than on radio, though still way less than the supply of tracks competing for slots.

2. Streaming platforms’ introduction of playlist submission by online form somewhat closes down the labels’ ability to determine which songs get the coveted slots. The platforms and their maths call the tunes.

The solution here is:

1. Work more systematically through the vast community of third-party playlisters, bloggers and multi-channel networks.

2. (Labels) Have their own consumer-facing properties, whether through their artists or another form of brand. Warner has been quietly continuing to market its own playlists through the umbrella of Topsify. (Oh Topsify belongs to Warner 😀 😀 :D)

How did it enlighten me? OMG if you know me (in real life), you should know that I’m a big big fan of BTS, and I have been wondering in what way BTS can enhance public recognition for their music. BTS is facing some problems in terms of audio stream. They are quite weak at playlisting.

I suppose the reasons are:

1. They can be considered as “independent artist” in US market since Big Hit do not enter partnership with any US label, and they didn’t “payola” also. That’s why BTS has low coverage on radio and playlist on streaming platforms.

2 .As mentioned above, streaming has shifted consumption away from albums to single tracks and playlists. However, BTS always promote the whole album in their “comeback”. They actually experimented with a new strategy – promoting one single at a time then the whole album in Map of the soul: 7 era, but the results were disappointing. I don’t know what Big Hit plans to do for the next album, if they return to their traditional way, it will be still impossible for BTS to get their song included in playlists, since they cannot put the whole album there.

3. General public tend to underrate BTS’s songs due to their prejudice against K-pop idol and language barrier (I guess).

These factors form a vicious circle: BTS is weak at playlisting => they cannot promote 1 lead single in their comeback (but the whole album instead) => it’s harder to reach the mass audience => they cannot get their songs included in playlists…..

SO, HOW ABOUT SECRETLY INVESTING ON THEIR OWN CONSUMER-FACING PROPERTIES? A TOPSIFY-ALIKE SITE? AND MARKET THEIR OWN MUSIC. Once mass audience are more open with BTS’s songs, the vicious circle is broken.

Source: MIDiA Research. (2019). Leaving Legacy Behind | Music Marketing Responds to Streaming. https://www.midiaresearch.com/reports/leaving-legacy-behind