A Little Knowledge… #14

📬 BULLETIN NEWS: SoundCloud's new 'Fans' feature helps artists identify superfans

SoundCloud executives have spoken several times about how the platform's 'fan-powered royalties' user-centric payouts was not an endgame in itself, but rather a building block to further opportunities for artists and their teams. "When the economic model cuts these cohorts [of fans] into their own scenes, rooms, that’s when the model really flies. That data, let alone the royalties, becomes even more valuable," SoundCloud's VP strategy Michael Pelczynski told the NY:LON conference in January.

Now SoundCloud has announced a product called simply 'Fans'.

• It starts with analytics. Artists will be able to see their most valuable fans in terms of royalties, but also sort them by comments, listening behaviour and sharing habits.
• The layer on top of this is communication: messaging those fans through SoundCloud. "Say thanks, share previews of upcoming releases, sell tickets and merch, or just open up the opportunity to chat," is how SoundCloud's SVP, creator Tracy Chan described how artists could use this.
• The new feature is available to more than 50,000 artists who are paying for SoundCloud's 'Next Pro' subscription. For fans that don't want to be messaged by the artists they follow, there is the ability to opt out. 
• Artists messaging their most engaged fans is one thing, but the potential to enable a two-way conversation may be the most powerful aspect of 'Fans'. It's one of the reasons why many artists and their teams are so interested in Discord servers all of a sudden too. Today's music superfans love privileged communications from their favourite artists, but they're also superkeen to talk back.

👉 Music Ally archive: SoundCloud

🌍 COUNTRY PROFILE: The French recorded music industry enjoys its sixth consecutive year of growth

Music Ally publishes regular profiles on the main and emerging music markets around the world. The reports include the latest data, growth forecasts, trends, charts, and interviews with key market figures. Our most recent profile, on France, was released this week:

The French recorded music industry posted its sixth consecutive year of growth in 2022, with revenue of €920m ($973m). This was on the back of strong growth in subscription streaming, which generated €426m ($451m), remained the leading source of recorded music revenue in France by a long chalk. The number of people in France subscribing to paid music subscription also rose.

There were 11m paid subscription accounts in France in 2022, up from 10m in 2021 and 8.7m in 2020. With multiple users of family and duo accounts taken into consideration, industry body SNEP said there were 16 million premium subscription users in France last year, with 8.6 million freemium users. 

👉 Read our full country profile that digs into the trends behind the latest facts on the market (subscriber only content).

🤔 A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA...

And finally… our daily Bulletin newsletter is loved by subscribers for its instant industry analysis - but secretly, the part they like most is the ‘A Little Something Extra’ section at the bottom of the email. Here's a few of the best recent links and a couple of Knowledge extras:

• Can a random sample of Brits speak in a convincing American accent? We'll let you be the judge.
• We're big fans of the frankly ludicrous TV show "Is It Cake?" – here's what happens when the premise is taken too far (⚠️ some NSFW language at the end!).
• Alongside its other AI announcements yesterday, Google launched an AI-designed card game called I/O Flip. It's no Exploding Kittens but it's quite fun.

This is only a glimpse into this week's newsletter – subscribe for FREE to The Knowledge and every Friday it’ll arrive in your inbox, with:

🎓 Exclusive 50% discounts on selected courses in our LEARNING HUB 🛠️ The best new platforms in TOOLS, 😵 💫 Some great and/or strange music in SOMETHING 4 THE WEEKEND, 🕰 A look back in TIME MACHINE, 🎧 The Music Ally Focus PODCAST, and 🤔 more links to our favourite unusual stuff in A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA.