Why doesn’t Spotify have more paying subscribers? The reasons are simple: (1) people are already subscribing to way too many other things, and (2) those other ‘things’ make free music way too easy to access.
From a just-published survey from Blackhawk Engagement Solutions (notice music isn’t even on the questionnaire):
And when it comes to music services, they typically prefer the free stuff…
When is “too many” really too many?
Is there any evidence for this causal claim?
It’s just as likely that they don’t pay for music simply because there are “too many” free alternatives, legal and not. If those were limited, I would venture to predict paying subscribers would multiply dramatically.
Would love to see this broken down by age ranges. Millenials aren’t cable subscribers.
No youTube in the free stuff category?
It’s a huge omission, but not the first time I’ve seen such a glaring gap in research like this. I’d bet the percentage response would be 75%+, had they included it.
Where is Amazon Prime?
Not sure why it’s not included. But good point.
Lots of people also subscribe to:
health insurance
car insurance
car payment/gas
rent/mortgage
utilities
and food (meals on wheels!)
😉
Those are all things that are required. Music streaming services are luxuries.
itunes is a streaming service? Did they manage to finally throw a launch no one knows about?
It’s called iCloud and iTunes Match. So yeah, Apple’s managing to fail at this game.
iMatch is not on-demand streaming – it finds matches based on taste and history.
Also, IIRC, iCloud is basically storage for what you own in some fashion. A file locker with decorative touches.
See, Paul? The truth isn’t that hard.
Doen’t iTunes have a radio service pretty much identical to pandora?
That’s why Apple bought Beats-and that will soon be called something more “Applely”
Maybe this is why music streaming should be bundled with the services in the chart above.
Perception is everything. You offer something for free for too long, as has already been done, it’s a long hard climb back. So you either buy into the illusion that this is all leading somewhere positive for artists or you go through the pain of tearing it all down and rebuilding.
Spotify is already moving away from music as they try and find new ways to make a business from 60 million subscribers, which will do nothing for artists and the music industry, but prolong the agony.
I don’t have internet. Where do I get my free music?
Don’t Cable services have free music channels, still?
I submit to you that for the purposes of music, audiences would be far more likely to subscribe to an artist that they feel they have a relationship with as opposed to a company. It would be interesting to see that play out.
I subscribe…Millennial here.. and no i don’t pay for cable or watch TV for that matter.