EMI Interviews 1 Million Music Consumers [Upward Spiral Deep Dive #2]
At SXSW last week, two heads of EMI's international
divisions were joined by music industry consultant Mark Mulligan as they
revealed the first findings from a three-year long research project. They have
interviewed over 1 million music customers from around the world about their
listening habits & methods of music discovery. The data was enlightening,
and the panelists offered some surprising analysis. In today's Deep Dive #2,
Jason, Hisham and Kyle analyze these findings and discuss what they might mean
for the broader music industry.
The Upward Spiral is a podcast about the new music industry featuring Kyle Bylin (Live Nation Labs), music industry consultant Jason Spitz (Former Director of Marketing at Topspin), and Hisham Dahud of Fame House. Along with special guests, the group discusses current events and issues that face artists & music professionals.
A few initial comments on this:
a. I don’t know why ClearChannel’s iHeartRadio is seen as the liberator of “georgraphy-based tyranny”. Internet radio has been around for more than 10 years. People have had options to tune into stations from other countries and cities for a WHILE. I don’t see why ClearChannel (the most destructive force in music today) gets the credit for that. App-based internet radio listening is a more recent phenomenon but ClearChannel was nowhere close to being the pioneer of that phenomenon.
b. When Payola becomes the method for music getting to 72% of the folks (i.e. on terrestrial radio), meritocracy for artists goes out the window. The crap that payola has allowed to get on to the radio might be a VERY large reason for why the “casual listeners” aren’t paying much for music anymore. I disagree with the notion that other media formats are displacing music.
I am sure I will have more comments once I listen to the second half of the podcast.