A brief insight from me into the digital music space from a brand perspective.

1. BRANDS IN A DIGITAL MUSIC SPACE
There is a gradual shift away from traditional advertising, which is ineffectual,
with recent research showing that as many as 75% of adults actively avoid
advertising whether on TV, billboards or banners1.
The modern consumer lives in a complicated marketplace where brands are
constantly competing for attention in various ways. This means that it is very
difficult to engage them in a top down way, prescribing to them why a
particular product is better than another. Consumers are more interested in
brands that offer them some sort of emotional connection by engaging them
as equals.
Effective use of music for brands is all about creating emotional ties between
the brand and the consumer, and connecting people to the brand through
music and artists in an interesting and innovative way.
Successful marketing is now more about offering something of value and
being authentic and open; delivering something new and interesting into their
lives that facilitates them to come to their own decision that your brand is
worthy for them to buy into. The value of this is then translated both into the
purchases that person makes and also the information they share with
others. According to a recent report 50% of social network users said that
they considered information shared on their social network before making a
purchase decision2.
We are firm believers in new marketing principle of the ‘Four E’s’:
• Emotions
• Experience
• Engagement
• Exclusivity
This kind of engagement can be done in a number of ways but we strongly
believe in music as great way to connect with consumers. Music is very
important to people; it’s the media format people would least like to live
without3. The same research shows that people listen to music on more than
5 different platforms and the amount they listen per day is consistently rising;
the younger they are, the longer they listen.
Another recent report shows that 40% of social media users embed music in
their personal profile, and over 50% use social media sites in order to find or
socialise around music4.
Music is an extremely effective way to engage consumers in a brand.
1
SIFO 2009
2
Beresford Research 2009
3
Milward Brown / Brand Amp 2007
4
EMR

2. Social Media
600 Million people use services such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter;
Facebook alone has 400 million users, whilst MySpace has 125 million users.
Social media is without a doubt huge; but the big question for a brand is how
to access it in a sensible way. We think the best way to access this space is
through music, as more than half of those who surf social network sites are
doing so in order to find or socialise around music. People also like to share
music via their profile with 40% sharing music on their profile5.
Personalised Radio
Personalised radio is one of the fastest growing areas of music delivery
online with Last FM, Spotify and Pandora fast becoming household names.
Some 4.5 million people in the UK had tuned in to personalised online radio
services such as Spotify and Last FM by December 09, up from 3.9 million in
May and 2.9 million in October last year.
Online Radio
Online radio is an extremely popular area that is also growing; 17.4 million
UK adults have listened to online radio to date, 15 million of these are
6
listening live; this is up 500,000 from May to December 2009 . Brands and
broadcasters are embracing the format and there are more radio stations
online than anywhere else.
5
Entertainment Media Research (EMR)
6
RAJAR 10/12/09

3. Online radio success is very much in line with the rising importance of the
Internet, which is of course THE growth medium. Radio is a complementary
medium to surfing the web and therefore a lot of people are doing it.
Research has shown that this combination of radio and surfing can drive
traffic more effectively to a brand or product than the sum of the two
separately7.
Digital Downloading
Digital downloads are incredibly popular with big tracks being downloaded a
huge amount of times legally and illegally. The track ‘Right Round’ by Flo
Rida sold 636,000 downloads in a single week in February 2009, and 2009
was a record year for digital music sales.
7
RAB 2008

4. In 2009 Europe was the fastest growing region for digital music sales across
the world and 27% of the music industry’s global revenue comes from digital
channels8. The market leader is iTunes who now have over a 100 Million
accounts across 23 countries9.
File Sharing
Quality music is heavily downloaded; free quality music is downloaded in
even greater numbers.
Research conducted by Capgemini found that 70 per cent of all music
consumed in the US, UK, France and Germany came through digital
channels, while revenues from digital platforms in those countries accounted
for only 35 per cent of industry revenues. The conclusion of course is that
consumers are embracing music delivered digitally but less-so when they
have to pay for it. In 2009 a Harris Research report suggested that 23% of
the general population in the UK illegally file-share music. EMR have also
reported that 71% of people involved in increased file-sharing activity in the
UK did so ‘because it is free’. Similar studies in Japan and Sweden by GFK
and the IFPI found that the main reason for illegal music downloading was
because it was free rather than better choice or quality.
8
IFPI
9
Apple