The traditional notion of the music industry has been well and truly dumped on its head over the past few years, since music started its march from CD shelves to digital shelves. Yesterday New Zealand’s music revenue results were released, showing just how quick and drastic this change has been, revealing that streaming is well and truly taking over. We caught up with Spotify’s Kate Vale who says New Zealand in particular has embraced streaming with open arms, as one of the highest ‘Premium’ conversion rates of any Spotify market in the world.
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Idealog’s Henry Oliver talks to Spotify’s global creative director Alex Bodman on how the music streaming service is relying less on the old marketing rule book and turning to data to connect with its audience in a more authentic way.
As indicated by the proliferation of headphones fastened to the ears of runners and gym goers, a personal soundtrack has become something of a necessity for an exercise regime. Given this affiliation between music and exercise, organisations such as Beats by Dr Dre has released a plethora of ads featuring sports stars using its products. Similarly, Spotify has also been making moves into this space, developing playlists specifically targeted at those engaging in exercise. And now, the music streaming service has taken it one step further by launching a feature that plays tracks matched to the pace the runner is moving at.
Trendsetters trade on being early adopters, whether it’s fashion, technology or creative pursuits. And, in a world where social media has become so important, sharing something before it goes viral has become a form of social validation (check out Kevin Alloca’s TED Talk for a look at some of the reasons). Now Spotify has launched a tool called Found Them First, which shows you how many artists you streamed before they hit the bigtime.
Pandora recently announced it’s planning to launch a sponsored listening product that will enable brands to give listeners an hour of ad-free streaming through the service. The initiative, which is already live in the US, is set to launch in the local market in the second quarter of 2015, giving local advertisers another means by which to access users on the platform.
We’ve all had that moment, as we tell our friends about a great song we’ve heard, plug in our phones/laptops into some sort of speaker system, push play on our Spotify as we stare at them with a look of anticipation and glee on our faces (like above photo) while we wait for the song to start, but it doesn’t.
I can still remember when I first began noticing Spotify back in 2012. Perhaps I was a little late in the game, but I didn’t start paying attention until my Facebook feed became filled with “[Insert friend’s name] listened to [insert track] on Spotify”. At first I found this mildly annoying thinking “What the hell is Spotify” while simultaneously feeling shocked to discover some of the crap my friends were listening to. But soon enough I found myself on the platform, figuring out what it was all about, running to my computer like most early users to turn down the blaring ads and like most other early users I was pretty adamant I wouldn’t be paying for it. But things change and New Zealand has embraced the service with open arms as one of the highest growing streaming markets in the world. We had the rare opportunity to have a chat with Spotify about how it’s doing in New Zealand, its branding partnerships, New Zealand’s piracy problem, the threat of Apple Music and more.
As Apple gets ready to take on the established streaming services with its new musical moves, Spotify has created a clever feature called Taste Rewind that acts as a musical time machine and shows users how the music of the past has influenced the music of today.
For the first time in New Zealand, Spark and Spotify have teamed up to bring together #MyFestivalStory, which will provide those going to Rhythm & Vines or Rhythm & Alps with a personalised digital snapshot of their experience through RFID technology.
The competition for Kiwi listeners, artists and advertisers is on, with music streaming companies like Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartRadio innovating rapidly to out-do each other down under, with analytics offers, better content and new ad units. StopPress looks at what tunes the providers are playing to try and increase their numbers. PLUS: Lorde-related stats!
Music often plays a big role in memories, reminding us of good times and bad. And Spotify is promoting its vast library with a nice campaign based around the slogan of ‘you have the story, we have the song’ and the hashtag #thatsongwhen. PLUS: what fellow streaming service Pandora is up to.
References to the rapid growth of online and mobile ad spend in the industry have been so ubiquitous in recent months that they’ve become something of a media cliché. And with this growth in revenue has come an inevitable attempt on the part of online media owners to get a piece of this burgeoning pie. And nowhere is this more evident than in the online radio market, which, despite its relative infancy in the local market, is starting to catch the attention of Kiwi advertisers due to its resonance with the mobile-hungry youth market. So, given that there have been some interesting moves made by the major players, StopPress decided to take a look at what they’re doing to get in on the action.
When in-car tape and CD players were first released, various analysts predicted the possible demise of the radio industry on account of the fact that people could customise their own playlists to personalise the listening experience. And while the industry managed to survive the tape deck and CD shuttle, the digital age is posing a new threat to radio’s continued dominance of in-car listening.
Only a few hours after stepping off a plane at Auckland Airport on 7 April, Pandora founder Tim Westergren sat down with us for a quick chat at the Generator, the New Zealand headquarters of the company. Although Westergren’s arrival in the country came as part of a promotional push to officially introduce the music-streaming platform to the New Zealand market after its release late last year, Pandora is by no means new to the Kiwi market. PLUS: a look at how Pandora’s offering compares to Spotify and iHeartRadio.
Telecom continues to search for ways to reach a mobile-savvy audience beyond the traditional landline. Hard on the heels of announcing a name change to Spark and its planned internet TV and movie service ShowmeTV, it’s partnering with Spotify to offer the Premium version on certain mobile plans.
Universal Music is working to digitise the remainder of its local release collection to take advantage of all digital music services available here.
You can stop arguing over the office radio now: internet radio service iHeartRadio has finally gone into open beta in New Zealand.
Clemenger businesses on the move in Welly, Bauer looks inside and finds a new advertising director, The Radio Network lures a big radio fish back home, Fairfax hands Lions Festivals baton to Val Morgan, Mark Reekie heads for the islands and Spotify announces new ANZ head of sales.
Music streaming service Spotify recently conducted a dubious survey in a few different markets to find out the most misquoted song lyrics. Surprisingly, AC/DC’s Thunderstruck, which definitely features the words ‘I was caught in the middle of a rhino attack’, or the Aussie anthem, which definitely features the words ‘Australians all let us ring Joyce’, didn’t make any of the lists.
Some interesting stats coming from Spotify about the music streaming service’s first year in the country, including most streamed artists, songs and popular local acts. Updated with Nielsen numbers.
A round up of the news from Google’s I/O conference, including news of a new streaming music service, redesigns everywhere, map goodness and tools for frazzled Android developers.
There was plenty of excitement when music streaming service Spotify finally launched in New Zealand in May. And it has announced its latest numbers and a few big changes to make the service more social, more personalised and hopefully more attractive to advertisers. Plus: Nielsen’s Spotify’s numbers.
Video hasn’t killed the radio star and, seemingly, neither will digital. In fact, not only has Kiwi radio maintained its share of all advertising, it now has more commercial listeners than at any time in the previous decade. But that doesn’t mean radio’s resting on its analogue laurels, as evidenced by the announcement from the Australian Radio Network (ARN) and subsidiary The Radio Network (TRN), a joint venture between APN News & Media and Clear Channel International, that popular all-in-one digital radio network iHeartRadio is coming down under.
With a customer base of over four million paying subscribers and over 15 million active users, it’s fair to say Spotify’s rise has been nothing short of gigantic. And, as it seeks new ways of monetising its service, it has set it sights on big brands that are equally keen to tap into the service to create unique marketing opportunities. The likes of McDonald’s and Reebok are already on board with their recommended playlists, and it’s even making tracks in political circles, with the creation of the official 2012 Obama campaign playlist. It recently gained some traction locally, too, with ASB and Saatchi & Saatchi teaming up to create what it says is a “New Zealand media-first” branded Facebook app that integrated with the Spotify platform and industry commentators to create an ‘Olympic Moods’ soundtrack to the Olympics.
Many have been anxiously awaiting the announcement, and it has cometh: digital streaming service Spotify is officially available in New Zealand and Australia, opening up its catalogue of more than 16 million tracks and bringing Spotify’s availability to a grand total of 15 countries. So what’s the deal? And why are brands like Coca-Cola getting involved?