A Little Knowledge... #66

Welcome to A Little Knowledge #66 – our free weekly LinkedIn newsletter.

📬 BULLETIN NEWS: Sony Music boss says streaming services should charge free users

Sony Group held its 2024 Business Segment Meeting this week, discussing the various parts of the corporation’s business. Music included, with a section of the presentation reserved for Sony Music Group boss Rob Stringer. Among the highlights: his call for music-streaming services to start charging for their free, ad-supported tiers:

• "The value of the paid music product remains incredible, and we appreciate that our partners recognised that with price increases over the past year. However, it also highlights that the price gap between free and paid has gotten wider," said Stringer. "In mature markets, we hope that our partners close that gap by asking consumers using ad-supported services to additionally pay a modest fee."
• Charging for an ad-supported service is a wider trend in digital media, although it’s been more common for ads to be added to a paid tier, rather than fees added to a free, ad-supported tier. Netflix did it in October 2022 with its ‘Basic with Ads’ tier for example, while Amazon’s Prime Video also recently started serving ads.
• Asking people who currently get a free, ad-supported service to start paying for it may seem riskier for DSPs, but Stringer said he was confident that the idea can work. “Ultimately, we are trying to get better monetisation of free tiers. We think everyone is willing to pay something for access to virtually the entire universe of music,” he said.
• Stringer’s comments build on views expressed by Sony Music’s digital boss Dennis Kookerin March at the launch of the IFPI’s Global Music Report. “There’s been no evolution of the financial models for free tiers since the beginning of the streaming era, and that needs to be re-examined as markets mature,” he said then.

👉 Read our analysis in full here.

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🕰️ TIME MACHINE: What we were writing about this week five and 10 years ago

Change in the music industry happens fast - almost as fast as Nepal’s Phunjo Lama, who has just broken the world record for the fastest ascent of Mount Everest by a woman. Here’s what we were writing about five and ten years ago:

5️⃣ In 2019 we reported on Indian music company T-Series becoming the first YouTube channel to pass 100 million subscribers, aided by India having recently become YouTube's fastest-growing market. Five years on, T-Series now has 266 million subscribers to its flagship channel, and notched up nearly 2.7bn views in April 2024 alone.

🔟 In 2014 Apple began its march into on-demand music streaming with its acquisition of Beats Electronics, including the latter's Beats Music service. That formed the basis for the launch of Apple Music a year later. By Q3 2023, Midia Research estimated that Apple Music had 89.8 million subscribers – placing third globally behind Spotify and Tencent Music.

💼 MUSIC ALLY JOBS

The latest and best jobs for the global music business, trusted by both top music industry companies and experienced professionals on top of their game.

Are you looking for a job? Click here to see the full list of vacancies!

🤔 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:

• Public service announcement: if you're joining a court Zoom call about your suspended driving licence... don't join it while driving your car.
• Great news, Legend of Zelda fans! The first official Lego set can be pre-ordered now. Bad news, Legend of Zelda fans! It costs $299.99.
• Need to waste some time today? The Verge has summarised 'the best tiny games on the internet' and Bandle is our pick of the bunch.

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

🛠️ The best new platforms in TOOLS; 🌍 Highlights from our latest COUNTRY PROFILE REPORTS; 😵💫 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.