Sandbox MUSIC MARKETING for the DIGITAL ERA Issue 98 | 4Th December 2013
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Sandbox MUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA Issue 98 | 4th December 2013 Nordic lights: digital marketing in the streaming age INSIDE… Campaign Focus Sweden and Norway are bucking PAGE 5 : the trend by dramatically Interactive video special >> growing their recorded music Campaigns incomes and by doing so PAGE 6 : through streaming. In countries The latest projects from the where downloading is now a digital marketing arena >> digital niche, this has enormous implications for how music Tools will be marketed. It is no longer PAGE 7: about focusing eff orts for a few RebelMouse >> weeks either side of a release but Behind the Campaign rather playing the long game and PAGES 8 - 10: seeing promotion as something Primal Scream >> that must remain constant rather Charts than lurch in peaks and troughs. The Nordics are showing not just PAGE 11: where digital marketing has had Digital charts >> to change but also why other countries need to be paying very close attention. Issue 98 | 4th December 2013 | Page 2 continued… In 2013, alongside ABBA, black metal and OK; they still get gold- and platinum-certiied CEO of Sweden’s X5 Music latpack furniture, Sweden is now also singles and albums based on streaming Group, explains. “The known internationally for music streaming. revenues [adjusted].” marketing is substantially It’s not just that Spotify is headquartered di erent as you get paid in Stockholm; streaming has also famously Streaming is changing entirely the when people listen, not when turned around the fortunes of the Swedish marketing narrative they buy. You get as much recorded music industry. In the irst half of money when people listen As you might imagine, these two 2013, recorded music revenue in Sweden the second time as you do Scandinavian countries have seen envious grew 12% year-on-year to SEK 499.4m the irst time, so there is a glances from many international music (£46.5m), with digital accounting for 75% of huge beneit in promoting businesses, not least the UK where streaming total revenue and streaming accounting for your albums constantly. The has yet to make up for falling music sales. 94% of digital revenues. launch date is less important But Sweden and Norway don’t just o er a now. The activation is equally This is a trend that Sweden shares with possible future for the wider music industry: Kieron Donoghue, founder of Playlists.net, important.” Scandinavian neighbour Norway, which itself the fact that streaming is so advanced a playlist-focused music discovery service saw a 17% rise in recorded music revenues in these two countries means that it has This, he believes, may be key to artists for Spotify, says this has led to the rather in the irst half of this year, with streaming become part of record company marketing getting a reasonable return from streaming bizarre experience of seeing Spotify playlists accounting for 66% of all revenue. plans there in a way that the UK and US can services. “Many artists in the business say, for Swedish hip-hop advertised on the ‘I don’t get enough money from Spotify’,” Stockholm Metro. “Streaming in Norway and Sweden is now only dream of. There is a lot to learn, then, from what Sweden and Norway have done. Lagerlöf says. “I normally then ask two over 70% of music revenues and the total “Record companies in Sweden are pushing things: ‘What have you done today to make market is increasing for the irst time in a On a very basic level, the rise of streaming in streaming in above-the-line advertising, people listen to your tracks?’ Normally the decade,” says Kjartan Slette, head of strategy Norway and Sweden has helped to break the on billboards, on the Metro, bus stations answer is a bunch of questions: ‘What do you at Norwegian streaming service WiMP. “Our music industry cycle of falling revenue and even TV advertising,” he adds. “Universal mean? Why? What shall I do?’ And the answer projections show that the total music market falling investment, as Slette explains. “First Music’s [fan-facing music playlist service] is: ‘You or your record company shall activate is likely to get back to the all-time-high of all the increase in sales and the following Digster service has been advertising on TV them and remind them to listen again.’” levels we saw in 1999/2000 – before Napster positivity has lead the labels to increase in Sweden, advertising it as a hub to ind launched – by 2020 or sooner.” their marketing and investments in new curated playlists. What it builds on is the fact The playlist is now one of the strongest that record labels are making good money Andreas Ahlenius, commercial director of talent,” he says. “Going to work today I often weapons in the arsenal from streaming so they can a ord to go and Universal Music Sweden, adds, “[In Sweden] see billboards and outdoor ads with music get more users to their playlists.” streaming is no longer a question of, ‘Will releases in the prime locations. That was not The knock-on e ect of this battle for streams the case just two years ago.” is that playlists have become ever-more this be good for us in the future?’ It’s what But labels in Sweden and Norway aren’t important, especially as labels recognise inances our investment in new talent. Most Naturally, this shift has also signiicantly just putting money into above-the-line their importance in driving streaming plays. artists in Sweden sell very few CDs, but that’s impacted marketing plans as Johan Lagerlöf, advertising for streaming: they are also Issue 98 | 4th December 2013 | Page 3 continued… putting signiicant resources into their own with ‘Thursday’ going to the top of the their marketing, according to Sony Music go through the same transformation as playlist services. “For the cleverer labels – Playlists.net top 100 chart of most playlisted Norway commercial director Aslak Bendtsen. in Sweden and Norway, albeit at di erent mainly Sony and Universal – when you look songs on the week of the competition. More speeds. “I think next year will be the year “As a streaming service can o er us more at their proiles on Spotify, they are really importantly, perhaps, the label saw a 60% when more countries and territories will detailed data on how the music is consumed, proliic curators of playlists,” says Donoghue. uplift in streams of ‘Thursday’ because of the really see massive growth in streaming,” he we can set up more accurate marketing “Sony Sweden has half a million followers competition. says. “This will make the entire market grow, activities with regards to the di erent on Spotify. That is bigger than a lot of artists. just as we have seen in Sweden and Norway.” Beyond playlists and above-the-line segments based on age, gender and media They are using playlists as a tool. They advertising, labels in Norway and Sweden are consumption,” he explains. “With the typically have 80% to 100% of their own also advertising within streaming services consumer most likely being online already, the … but natural adoption barriers remain artists on there.” and working with these services on ways to road into consuming music on a streaming The question remains, however, whether The contrast with British labels is marked: boost streams. WiMP, for example, worked service is completely changed from a this success can be replicated in bigger and Digster Sweden’s ‘Fresh’ playlist has 109,000 with Sony’s Thomas Dybdahl – “one of the marketing perspective compared to previous arguably less technologically advanced followers, while the UK Digster ‘Hits’ playlist bigger Norwegian artists” – to release a visiting record store habits.” music markets, such as the UK and the US. has 4,000 and Virgin EMI’s ‘Music On special version of his ‘What’s Left Is Forever’ And if so, what should labels do to bring this The buoyancy of the music industries in Monday’ just 29. “They have a long way album for lossless streaming service WiMP about? Sweden and Norway is hard evidence that to go,” says Donoghue of British labels. HiFi, including commentary and unmixed this progressive attitude towards streaming is The key, according to Slette, is for labels “But playlists are a new format and a new sound. paying dividends in a cold, northern corner of to bring streaming to the forefront of their currency – and the Nordics realise this. Over This interaction between labels and Europe. Slette says he now sees evidence that thinking. “Don’t treat the streaming services here [the UK] it doesn’t really happen.” streaming services also extends to sharing Denmark may be the next market to follow. as an afterthought but as an integral part data on how consumers are listening to of your communication and plans,” he says. These marketing tricks are now being “I see it now beginning in Denmark as it is music. Labels can then use this to improve “And, remember, all services are slightly exported… catching up fast revenue-wise on streaming,” di erent. Get to know the strengths and he says. “Other territories are weaknesses of the local players and act This is not to say that the British music still inding their footing, and accordingly.” industry isn’t learning. Playlists.net recently with substantial physical sales in did a competition with Kobalt Label Services many markets still, like Germany, I Lagerlöf concludes, “Think ‘plays’ instead for the Pet Shops Boys’ single ‘Thursday’, understand why they are moving of ‘sells’. It is not about the irst week any which invited users to compile a seven-song more slowly.