thereport ISSUE 399 | 21 DECEMBER 2016 Subscriptions, YouTube, ticketing, VR, majors, indies and more in our interview special 2 ISSUE 399 COVEREND OF FEATURE YEAR SPECIAL 21.12.16 Contents Beth Appleton .................. 3 Ty Roberts ........................ 5 Sitar Teli ............................7 2016 review Rob Wells .......................... 8 Subscriptions, David Lowery ..................10 YouTube, ticketing, Gregor Pryor ....................12 VR, majors, indies Diluk Dias ........................13 Lara Baker .......................15 and more in our Martin Bandier ................16 interview special Scott Cohen ....................18 Jen Long ..........................19 2016 may go down in history as the year of Brexit, President Trump and all kinds of other upheavals. Elizabeth Moody .............21 But for once, the music industry is entering the festive period feeling positively, well, festive. Or at least firmly optimistic at the end of a year that saw streaming subscriptions sparking growth that feels Ed Peto ........................... 23 genuinely sustainable for the industry. Spotify and Apple Music adding more than 22 million new subscribers between them is the big story of 2016. But it’s not the only one. Golan Shaked ................. 24 ur final report of the year is an Among the more nuanced discussions YouTube’s $1bn of ad-revenue payouts in Beatie Wolfe ................... 26 interview special, picking the in this issue: gauging streaming’s the last year. Some of our interviewees, brains of executives from labels, benefits for different levels of creators while agreeing that safe-harbour legislation Kevin Brown ....................27 publishers and digital services and rightsholders; Spotify’s increasingly needs modernising, also see opportunities – as well as artists, lawyers and powerful in-house playlists viewed through and hard cash – in the platform already. Syd Lawrence ................. 29 Oinvestors. A range of themes has emerged. the lenses of globalisation and localisation; The other theme that emerges is one First is the way that as streaming’s and the question of which pureplay of urging musicians and music executives Alison Wenham .............. 30 financial contribution has grown, so services can really go toe-to-toe with to use this year’s growth as a spur for the debates around it have evolved and Apple, Google and Amazon. more boldness, more risk-taking, and more Lauren Wirtzer-Seawood ..32 report deepened beyond the binary ‘is streaming YouTube and the ‘value gap’ are collaboration with one another and with good or bad for artists?’ question that inescapable, of course, but this isn’t just the tech world. Read on to find out how Ian McAndrew ................ 34 dominated the earlier part of this decade. about rightsholders giving short shrift to and why. :) the 3 ISSUE 399 21.12.16 Beth Appleton REVIEW SVP of global marketing, Warner Music Group “2016 was absolutely about playlisting. If in the big playlists around the world. should remember that it’s passion that we could pick one word that sums up the “What’s critical in the next year – breaks an act. If we look [just] at skip rates industry’s year, that’s it.” definitely the year after but hopefully we’ll and ad collection rates, we’re killing our Beth Appleton, SVP of global marketing get there next year – is that we’ll have own ability to be part of culture. Because at Warner Music Group (not to mention these strong local playlists, that allows us the thing about culture is that it can be Outstanding Achievement recipient at to still bring new and developing bands something new, which might make you go music:)ally’s Digital Music Awards) is at the through, and not just be seeing the top of ‘what?!’,” she says. sharp end of the industry’s latest digital the pops,” she says. “If we see data telling us something isn’t transition. “At the moment it’s self-cyclical: Drake, doing so well, and we just stop, we might as That includes the question of Rihanna, Bieber… It’s becoming a little bit well shut the doors and go home. Because globalisation and homogeneity, where too vanilla at the moment. We need to do that means actually all we’re doing is It’s becoming a little bit too Drake, Rihanna, Justin Bieber and other big our job to bring a little bit more colour.” putting a song out and going ‘let’s see what vanilla at the moment. stars may elbow local artists out of the top Other marketing trends tracked by happens’. It should never be our job to just We need to do our job to bring a slots on the big playlists in some countries. Appleton in 2016 include a further tilting see what happens. It should be our job little bit more colour” Appleton hopes that this landscape will of emphasis towards individual songs to make things happen, and that’s about evolve, noting that in Scandinavia, Spotify’s rather than albums, with singles capable enthusiasm and passion.” big playlists are more focused on local acts, of peaking six months or more after their It’s also about taking risks, which is a thanks to the way they developed before initial ‘release’. Plus the challenges of skill that Appleton thinks has continued to that service launched in the US. making sense of a deluge of data from improve within the industry in 2016, despite “They’ve got established local streaming and social networks. the history that means some outsiders will playlists, which means they’ve got a “I actually think that simplicity is key. always see labels as risk-averse when it more established and more local chart. We can drown ourselves in data sometimes comes to anything digital. We’re in the world where we can That means it’s a lot easier for the music because we don’t know what we’re looking “The worst thing is if there is amazing hopefully be enabling a lot of industry to actually break local artists, for,” says Appleton, who oversaw a project technology, and it takes two and a half smaller partners, rather than just because they’re not competing in a global for WMG to create its own tools to make years to get some paperwork in place, then Today’s Top Hits world. But we’re just more sense of sales, streams, airplay, nothing happens,” says Appleton. having a few big ones” not there yet in some of the more recent charts and social media stats for artists. “When you’ve got things that are [country] launches,” she says. While enthusiastic about the way this happening, and you can see that they’re WMG famously worked with Spotify can inform decisions on a daily basis, happening, it’s important that you’re part of to break Danish band Lukas Graham Appleton thinks that 2016 was also a year that, and part of making it better, not part of report worldwide thanks to heavy playlisting of in which the industry remembered not to stopping it. That’s the difference: in the days their track ‘7 Years’, but Appleton hopes discard its intuition. of peer-to-peer, it was literally ‘How can we that 2016 can be the start of more variety “As people in the music industry, we stop it?’ and not ‘How can we make it work?’. the 4 ISSUE 399 21.12.16 BETH APPLETON, WARNER MUSIC GROUP, continued REVIEW “Actually, most people who are out there go ‘Bang!’ – and want to use music, they want to use it you’d have your legitimately. People understand that music premieres on radio, is copyright and that it’s the livelihood of your playlisting on streaming services, the writers and artists, which maybe wasn’t and people doing really funny dances or so much the case when you look back.” amazing cover versions across YouTube,” Appleton has encouraged her team she continues. to say yes to every meeting offered by a “You suddenly reach an audience of X startup – “one in ten, at least, you’ll learn million. That would be really exciting, and something super” – while pointing to it’s very feasible: we’re not far off that. WMG’s first-mover status in licensing social You’ll reach a larger audience which means app Musical.ly as a sign of its intent in 2016. more people listening. And essentially “Our job is to find the new partners of we’re in a ‘listening’ business model now.” tomorrow, as much as to work really well Monitoring new trends in how fans with our partners of today. That extends interact with music is a key part of that. to YouTubers or somebody on Musical.ly or Appleton says the emergence of Snapchat Instagram with hundreds of thousands of is one of the trends that kept labels on followers,” says Appleton. their toes this year. “We’re in the world where we can “But if you look at the many production for example – worked with WMG on their “We’ve gone through a world of one- hopefully be enabling a lot of smaller houses building up, who will go and create videos. to-many, where YouTube is one-to-many, partners, rather than just having a few big music that people can use in their YouTube “Our marketing teams are going to Facebook is one-to-many and MySpace ones. It’s about all the different levels on videos? That is growing, and that says to YouTubers to get them to do something. was one-to-many. But we’re now in this which people can work with us and our me: opportunity! We have to look at how This is the new Top of the Pops. It’s the new world of Snapchat, where we’re going much content.” we can collaborate with our publisher MTV.