Text | Musical precursor, author | Lu Xiuxiu, editor | Fan Zhihui
Nowadays, the rules of the game are no longer you attacking and defending, in the integration trend of channels and content, the upstream and downstream of the industry is undergoing a new power game - record companies pay more and more attention to the creation of channels, streaming media platforms increase the content layout, both of which have achieved new development in the mutual penetration of business.
After four years, Spotify is back, trying to get past the record label and work directly with musicians. Where does its strength come from this time? Who will be the winner of this game of thrones?
The core logic of this patent is not complicated, in order to determine whether a musician has potential, Spotify sets 2 key values - minimum playback threshold (minimum playback threshold) and minimum growth threshold (minimum growth threshold).
If a musician's song playback is above the minimum playback threshold and the increase in a certain time frame exceeds the minimum growth threshold, it can be considered a "breakthrough". For example, the "minimum playback threshold" might be 200,000 cross-platform plays in a month, and the "minimum growth threshold" might be a 300% increase in playback per month. Spotify stressed that the metrics are "only exemplary, and the minimum playback threshold may be higher or lower."
In fact, big data-driven A&R technology has been developed for many years, and many platforms have developed unique A&R black technology. Among them, some of the data A&R platform chooses the dimension of musicians, taking Sodatone, which was acquired by Warner Music in 2018 as an example, not only starting from music streaming data such as the number of plays, likes, and collections, but also comprehensively considering the performance of musicians on youtube, TikTok and other video platforms, and predicting the career prospects of musicians through more three-dimensional data descriptions.
Others start with the works of musicians, such as Musiio, a music artificial intelligence platform, which evaluates songs from multiple dimensions such as genre, range, production, potential popularity, and emotion by converting audio files into computer-readable signals. At the same time, A&R practitioners can also review a musician's work in the past 12 months and gain a more accurate understanding of the musician.
Compared to the above two, whether it is the main function or the size of the system, Spotify's new patent is more streamlined.
Of course, the operation mode of this patent has not yet been determined, and there is still a lot of preliminary work to be done before practical application. Regarding the setting of the two key parameters of the minimum playback threshold and the minimum growth threshold, Spotify said that it will consider the genre, format and audience.
For example, "the minimum playback threshold for a pop singer might be 200,000 plays in a month, while the minimum playback threshold for classical pianists could be 2 plays in a month.". However, how to define the specific values among the many influencing factors that are difficult to quantify still needs to be further considered.
In addition, it remains to be verified whether a musician has potential based on the dimension of streaming volume alone. But this patent should only be the first step in Spotify artists to explore the business, and there will be more work around this patent in the future.
Once again "out of bounds" challenge, can Spotify do it?
In addition to internal development, the external environment of Spotify's upstream content side is also more favorable.
In the past two years, independent music has shown great value potential and possibilities. According to MIDiA Research, in 2020, the revenue of independent labels and musicians increased by 27%, well above the overall level of 7%, and the market share of independent music further rose to 43.1%. For independent music, the capital market has also given good feedback, and last year, two independent musician distribution platforms, DistroKid and UnitedMasters, received a new round of investment, and the market value increased to $1.3 billion and $550 million, respectively.
Of course, Spotify, which has a high value of independent music and takes advantage of the opportunity to penetrate upstream, also faces greater competitive pressure from other streaming media platforms, independent musician service platforms and mainstream record companies.
After all, no matter where they are in the industry chain, every market participant wants to get a piece of the untapped independent music market.
This time seems to take the initiative, but in fact, it is also a necessity under the competition of the industry. Compared with four years ago, Spotify is undoubtedly more confident, but what kind of scale it can "cross the line" depends on whether the three major records can sit still.
Music platforms and record labels in game of thrones
Under the trend of integration of channels and content, music streaming platforms such as Spotify are gradually "infecting" the traditional business of record companies.
With a wide range of star-making channels, A&R is no longer the exclusive job of a record label. In January this year, SoundCloud launched a "Roster" service for independent musicians, including paying advance payments and helping musicians distribute and promote them. Through this service, SoundCloud has now obtained exclusive rights to new albums by musicians such as Lil Pump and MadeinTYO. Last month, SoundCloud also formed a joint venture with rap label QC Media Holdings to discover, invest in, and nurture musicians who are making their mark on SoundCloud.
As mentioned earlier, Spotify's purpose in filing for a new A&R patent is also to "seek collaborations with artists as early as possible for marketing and recording copyright collaborations." It can be seen that the streaming media platform's involvement in A&R is only the first step in its content layout, and the ultimate goal is to establish its own music content ecology as soon as possible and grasp the right to speak about content.
Nowadays, with the in-depth development of the music industry, the value of content continues to rise, and the key factor of attention economic competition - channels is becoming more and more important, and the participants of the entire industry chain are competing with each other and influencing each other in the trend of "going down" or "going up". The participants on both ends, music platforms and record companies, are testing each other in the fusion of spheres of influence, which can be called a realistic version of "Game of Thrones".
Compared with foreign countries, in this convergence trend, the domestic platform should go faster.
At present, the independent musicians who have settled in the music platform in China have formed a considerable scale, and activities such as support plans and songwriting camps for this part of the musicians are emerging in an endless stream. The layout of domestic music platforms for the upstream of the industrial chain is also becoming more and more intensive, such as TME has a shareholding in the three major record companies, invested in local record companies represented by the anemone system, and NetEase Cloud Music has also built a large number of content studios such as Yunshang and Qingyun Lab.
From video streaming to music streaming, and then from short videos to NFTs, with music copyrights with high value, mainstream record companies rely on content advantages to achieve music promotion and monetization in various emerging channels.
Of course, the good times of record companies are also stable, and with the diversification of new channels, there are more and more bottom-up challengers. Taking short video leader ByteDance as an example, following the music streaming service Resso, the ticketing function TikTok Tickets, and the copyright agency distribution platform Galaxy Ark, soda music has just been launched recently, and TikTok's internal music distribution and marketing platform SoundOn has also been launched.
It can be seen that both traditional giants and industry upstarts are inevitably involved in the integration trend of content and channels, and have been in a dynamic game relationship. Today's music industry chain, is not a simple supply and marketing relationship, whether in the upstream or downstream, are seeking new development in the expansion of business scope.