Problem | Solution #3: MANAGING GLOBAL – LOCAL CULTURE
Managers and artists now require labels to break them more quickly, or simultaneously, across multiple markets. The requirement exposes some of the limitations of labels’ current structure and corporate culture:
1. Informal collaboration is required (as opposed to the systematic global decision making that drives strategy at streaming services), and so label executives spend unquantifiable amounts of time persuading their counterparts in other territories to “get behind this artist”.
2. Marketing assets are not shared in a global content management system and through “dev ops”, but managed much more labour intensively.
3. The “cooperation tax” of executive time involved is an expensive inefficiency.
However, labels have few global levers to pull other than playlisting.
Managing the global-local balance has been the unique skillset of multinational corporations in all sectors selling global products. Labels are set up to support and market local repertoire. Labels must incentivise collaboration and empower global streaming marketing teams to be able to make direct decisions on global marketing levers – Facebook campaigns, influencer marketing, direct-to-consumer playlisting and communication. The skill sets required are global planning expertise, deep cultural and genre expertise and the ability to share best-practice marketing blueprints between and across markets for local teams to deploy.
Problem | Solution #4: MANAGING MUSIC’S VALUE
In streaming market, money will make its way to artists as revenue when artists amass enough streams (the high tens of millions is the territory where streaming really pays off). However, if all marketing efforts leading to streaming, and the goal is ultimately streaming market share, then music producers have a bigger problem looming. If the art created by professional music artists is merely a function of time spent by consumers in the attention economy (the number one engagement metric on streaming platforms), then the value of the art is diluted. In licensing terms, they are worth more (though not by much), but in consumption terms they are the same: a proportion of time spent on a streaming app.
Without a doubt, artists and their representatives are doing their best to broaden the revenue streams available. Progressive management companies run their artist profit and losses like global SME companies, and revenues are fairly evenly diversified across streaming, physical bundles, live, merch and brand/synch income. But to secure greater value for top artists – those that make very popular music that takes large investment to create – we can see windowing (the process of releasing podcast or media content that is only available over a certain period of time and/or at a particular destination or source) and exclusives back on the agenda before too long. The question remains, which platforms/audiences get the premium window?
Muniverse 