Playing Nice To Get Lucky

Michael Hedges February 10, 2014 Follow on Twitter

Innovation is often seen as coming from young minds at hard labor fueled by Red Bull and pizza. Some of that is true, particularly the pizza bit. As digital markets mature the other source of innovation is much less frantic and involves coupling needs and wants by finding benefits for all. Of course, everybody wants to get lucky.

News UK newspapers The Times and The Sunday Times are now offering access to Spotify Premium to new and renewal subscribers. Not all that long ago, newspaper publishers stuffed CDs and DVDs between the covers to attract street sales. Both titles, owned by News Corporation, have hard paywalls on digital editions and the offering is an incentive to buy top-level service packages.

For those just climbing out of the old media cave, Spotify is one of the better known music streaming services, with some 20 million titles for fans to behold. It sprang up in Sweden in 2006 and is now available in 50 countries. There’s a free service supported by ads, a restricted subscription service with no ads and a premium service for all the music and no interruptions. Spotify is credited for propelling, with over 100 million streams, Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” to international hit status last summer and the Grammy for Best Single.

“Music is one of the top passions of readers of the Times and the Sunday Times and it is our aim to provide new services to our membership base to add value to their subscription,” said News UK Chief Marketing Officer Katie Vanneck-Smith in a statement. “It is great to be working with a like-minded brand that also offers premium paid-for content.”  News UK poached CEO Mike Darcey from BSkyB a year ago, where he was COO, as the marketing lines between the traditional newspaper and pay-TV businesses disappear. The Times and Sunday Times have a combined digital base of about 150,000 and print base of about 200,000. 

Competition is stiff within the online music services, streaming or download, with more coming. Beats Music just launched in the US, an outgrowth of headphone maker Beats Electronics and well-connected to the LA music business. It has a marketing partnership with AT&T and bought advertising time in the recent Super Bowl telecast.

User and subscription growth for all online media services quickly become incremental as the pay-TV business learned. Bundling with other media is essential in the new media world. “Spotify and The Times and Sunday Times both share a passion for delivering the highest quality content and experiences to our digitally-savvy, culturally-engaged audiences,” said Spotify UK business development director Peter de Bruin. “We think that the two titles and Spotify make a perfect partnership and we look forward to welcoming many more subscribers to enjoy a whole world of music on Spotify.”

Bavarian public broadcaster BR has taken advantage of tools available from Spotify – not to forget marketing exposure. The music feature program Zündfunk on culture radio channel Bayern 2 has a page on the Spotify website linking reviews and such with related music. Developed by BR as “the first public radio program in Germany to develop an offer for the streaming service Spotify, music journalism and user-friendliness explicitly takes center stage,” said the broadcaster’s statement.

Many radio broadcasters, particularly those with profit margins dependent on music programming, predicted the end of the world when the Apple iTunes download service arrived and now hear the howling beasts as ad-supported streaming services take hold of mobile listeners. Many of these online services offer radio-like format aggregations based on user preferences. Beats Music, however, uses ‘experts’ to choose the tunes, just like DJs in days of old.

Under statutory format or target audience rules applied in some countries, radio broadcasters are at a distinct disadvantage for linear ears with diverse tastes. “If we are in the world of Spotify or Last.fm, they can do whatever they like without requiring any regulator’s permission,” said UK commercial radio trade association Radio Centre interim CEO Linda Smith to Business Reporter (February 5). In the most recent UK RAJAR audience report several music stations suffered significant drop off in listening even as overall radio listening grew.

“No other media is subject to this degree of micro-regulation,” groused Ms Smith. “Just think of what’s happened in the last 10 years.” German private radio saleshouse RMS skipped to the good bit last year and signed a deal to sell ads for Spotify.

Online music services, Spotify included, will benefit within the European Union from the Collective Rights Management Directive passed by the European Parliament last week. If it passes the European Council, which is expected, no longer will online providers need to wade through dozens of rights collecting agents. For the digital realm, Europe-level copyright management rules will “facilitate the entry of smaller innovative suppliers on the European market,” said Internal Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier whose office drafted the Directive.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Digital Transitions

Media's transition from analogue to digital has opened opportunities and unleashed challenges beyond the imagination. Media is connected and mobile yet fettered by old rules and new economics. Broadcasters and publishers borrow from the past while inventing whole new services. This ftm Knowledge file explores the changes. 88 pages PDF (March 2012)

Order here

Media in Spain - Diverse and Challenged – new

Media in Spain is steeped in tradition. yet challenged by diversity. Publishers hold great influence, broadcasters competing. New media has been slow to rise and business models for all are under stress. Rich in language and culture, Spain's media is reaching into the future and finding more than expected. 123 pages, PDF. January 2018

Order here

The Campaign Is On - Elections and Media

Elections campaigns are big media events. Candidates and issues are presented, analyzed and criticized in broadcast and print. Media is now more of a participant in elections than ever. This ftm Knowledge file reports on news coverage, advertising, endorsements and their effect on democracy at work. 84 pages. PDF (September 2017)

Order here

Fake News, Hate Speech and Propaganda

The institutional threat of fake news, hate speech and propaganda is testing the mettle of those who toil in news media. Those three related evils are not new, by any means, but taken together have put the truth and those reporting it on the back foot. Words matter. This ftm Knowledge file explores that light. 48 pages, PDF (March 2017)

Order here

More ftm Knowledge files here

Become an ftm Individual or Corporate Member to order Knowledge Files at no charge. JOIN HERE!