Music Ownership: eMusic’s Molly Neuman Looks At Consumer Motivations
Guest post by Molly Neuman, eMusic's VP Label Relations and MD Europe via digitalmusic.org.
For a large segment of music consumers, downloading music to own is something that's seen as music's past. But for an even larger share, owning and collecting is hugely important.
Compounding the issues at hand, streaming has taken on different meanings to today's consumers, including streaming your MP3 files to a device from the cloud, or streaming to your desktop via an internet radio station, a la Pandora or eMusic Radio. Streaming a term that's talked about in the industry today as the future of music, but what drives consumers to strong desire for ownership today?
Through recent research we've learned the different motivations behind consumers' desire to own music files instead of streaming them to rent. The reasons for consumers' desire to own their music include those that are more practical and those that are more emotional. The flexibility and security that owning music file provides is a practical reason (i.e. my files won't disappear if my subscription ends). Music buyers do not want to risk losing their collection if a service changes its terms or goes out of business; it would take a lot of time and money to replace most collections. Other reasons are more emotional, like the feeling of artist support (i.e. I'm supporting the artist more if I purchase a song or album and add it to my collection).
While the practical motivations behind ownership might be the main drivers today, the emotional motivations will make the most impact tomorrow. Especially for the more active and dedicated music fans – who are the most valuable type of consumers – the emotional feeling of supporting the artist is one of the main motivations to buy and own music. It's what pushes fans to buy the CD or other merchandise of an emerging artist after a performance. It's also behind vinyl's resurgence.
Ownership is art for many, not a science. A music collection is something that you've carefully crafted, take pride in and show off to your friends. A collection is something that's also composed of albums, not singles.
Even with today's endless options to stream personalized playlists, albums are what many artists want fans to experience, not just one single – a fragmented form of their work. It's not just because buying an album generates more revenue for the artist. For many artists, it's because owning an album allows a consumer to fully experience the artist's musical vision time and time again, and have it resonate on a deeper, emotional level.
That's something a streaming playlist can never replace, and why ownership – and the feeling it provides of artist support, collection, and experience – will remain relevant for digital music consumers in the future.
Some good points, but I completely disagree about singles versus albums. Spotify has said that some of the most popular “playlists” are in fact full albums. It is just as easy to listen to an album on a streaming site as a collection of singles, and many users do just that. Plus, what’s wrong with listening to singles? That has a longer tradition than the long player.
I would be curious to know the demographics behind your research, specifically by age. What age groups say they want to “own and collect” versus the ones who are happy with streaming?
@Jeremy – That’s a good question. The sample base for the research referenced above is adults (ages 18-65).
@Molly N – are music collectors really evenly distributed across all age groups?
I also disagree re: singles. The concept album represents the death of songcraft, and the rise of filler and the artist’s ego. Why sell one great song for cheap, when you can bundle it with some not-so-great songs for a higher price? The industry-supported abandonment of the single led to the “intent” of the artist being that fans will be eternally loyal, buying every album and listening to it in its entirety over and over, attending all their concerts, buying all their merch, and spreading the gospel about them. But the reality is that listeners are only sometimes that loyal, and are generally all over the place in terms of album vs. single preferences. Shuffle-play and other radio-type services are the status quo for them. They still want singles. Other listeners prefer the album format, though. Many exhibit both preferences, depending on artist, circumstances, and their mood that day. Many will tell you they think albums are overpriced and full of filler. Others are more than happy to listen to albums all day.
Anyway, the only comment I would add about the value of ownership is that some people, a minority perhaps, also value their privacy. These people do not like having to give up anonymity and all their personal info just to buy or stream copyrighted music and video, which is what industry-embraced technology generally requires of them. They especially don’t want to give it up if it means that info might be used against them someday. For these reasons, piracy will always have a degree of public appeal not unlike that of paying cash for a physical CD or video: not just ownership, but private ownership.
“Owning” versus “renting” is a straw man argument the same as “singles” versus “albums”. Most streaming services make it extremely easy to purchase albums or singles. My primary service is MOG and I listen almost exclusively to albums. For those albums which I wish to “own” I simply buy them from Amazon or iTunes.
With MOG I have the ability to instantly listen to any song or album that pops into my head without the hassle of having to download and manage it. I also have the option of purchasing any album or song I wish to own.
Seems like we consumers are in a big win-win these days. Unfortunately, eMusic execs seem to be using their “research” to create these false either-or’s, probably to prop up a failing business model.
Taking ownership of anything is accepting responsibility in your life. It doesn’t matter if it’s a CD or a house, a decent pair of shoes or a new bicycle. When you buy it and take personal ownership, you are investing in the future. When I bought my last CD, it was because I wanted that music available for future use and enjoyment. When you grow up, the things you buy are things of value, and are to be treasured. When you buy, you are vested in the future. The people who rent their music have not yet seen themselves as having a future. In the end, we all come to accept that we will be around for awhile and it will be a joy to pull out that favorite oscure CD you got 15 years ago and share it with you friends and family.