Illegal Music Downloads Have Hit a Record High
Posted by Jeff on Aug 2nd 2007, 16:23
The UK newspaper the Telegraph ran an article today on illegal music downloading. It's pretty short, but makes a grand conclusion.
But as the article says, there is a disconnect between hearing an artist on Bebo and actually purchasing it. It's great if I can embed the music on my MySpace page, but there isn't a very large call to action to purchase the song. Snocap has made that call clear as the sun. But it's the wrong place and the wrong time for it.
Where Snocap falters, and where I think there is a breakdown in the customer experience, is from initial first artist contact transitioning in to purchase.
Lets take the progression of my coworker Matt.
Matt sits next to me at work, and unlike me, spends his free time running and not listening to as much music as possible 24/7. A little while ago I made Matt a CD of a lot of my better Hip-Hop. On it was a local group called the Blue Scholars. He liked what he heard, listened to the album I gave him and become a fan. So now, when their new album came out he went to iTunes and bought it.
This is a win for the future of music. Word a mouth and music evangelicalism has resulted in an online sale. The artist makes money and, seeing as Blue Scholars are their own record company, some big media company does not. It's great, and I love it. It is the future of music.
But. Lets change one little thing. Rather than me telling Matt about the Blue Scholars, assume that he found it from a music embed widget on my MySpace. He knows me, knows I have the MP3s of the artist, so he's going to ask me for it first. Or he'll download it illegally. Or, he'll go Google their name and look them up that way. Just because he can buy it right on my MySpace with Snocap doesn't make it any more likely that he will make a purchase. Yes the act of purchasing is easier, but making him a fan is just as hard as before - even with all this technology and social networking. Nobody makes music purchases like they buy candy bars in the checkout line at the grocery store. You have to work for those sales, and work hard.
So the question then becomes - who's doing the best job converting people in to purchasers? Snocap who supports their artist only with the tiny flash music store? Hardly. iTunes is huge and just does volume sales - they just provide the function. There are a few more places out there that support artists and offer a community, but I think you'll be hard pressed to find an online music store as community driven as TuneShout.
And in the end, that's what matters. When a user found out about an artist from a widget, they shouldn't be prompted to buy it right then. They should be taken back to a page all about that artist. A place where they can get to know them - maybe try out a few more of their songs. A place to read other reviews, see what other people thought about them. Then, in a day or 6 months from then, when they're ready to make their purchase - they can come back to the same place.
John Enser, head of music at Olswang, said: "The music industry needs to embrace new opportunities being generated by the increasing popularity of music on social networking sites. Surfing these sites and discovering new music is widespread with the latest generation of online consumers but the process of actually purchasing the music needs to be made easier to encourage sales and develop this new market."They're making reference to all the embedable music playing widgets on MySpace, Bebo and the like. Personally, I think this is great - as the widgets expose people to music they would have never heard before.
But as the article says, there is a disconnect between hearing an artist on Bebo and actually purchasing it. It's great if I can embed the music on my MySpace page, but there isn't a very large call to action to purchase the song. Snocap has made that call clear as the sun. But it's the wrong place and the wrong time for it.
Where Snocap falters, and where I think there is a breakdown in the customer experience, is from initial first artist contact transitioning in to purchase.
Lets take the progression of my coworker Matt.
Matt sits next to me at work, and unlike me, spends his free time running and not listening to as much music as possible 24/7. A little while ago I made Matt a CD of a lot of my better Hip-Hop. On it was a local group called the Blue Scholars. He liked what he heard, listened to the album I gave him and become a fan. So now, when their new album came out he went to iTunes and bought it.
This is a win for the future of music. Word a mouth and music evangelicalism has resulted in an online sale. The artist makes money and, seeing as Blue Scholars are their own record company, some big media company does not. It's great, and I love it. It is the future of music.
But. Lets change one little thing. Rather than me telling Matt about the Blue Scholars, assume that he found it from a music embed widget on my MySpace. He knows me, knows I have the MP3s of the artist, so he's going to ask me for it first. Or he'll download it illegally. Or, he'll go Google their name and look them up that way. Just because he can buy it right on my MySpace with Snocap doesn't make it any more likely that he will make a purchase. Yes the act of purchasing is easier, but making him a fan is just as hard as before - even with all this technology and social networking. Nobody makes music purchases like they buy candy bars in the checkout line at the grocery store. You have to work for those sales, and work hard.
So the question then becomes - who's doing the best job converting people in to purchasers? Snocap who supports their artist only with the tiny flash music store? Hardly. iTunes is huge and just does volume sales - they just provide the function. There are a few more places out there that support artists and offer a community, but I think you'll be hard pressed to find an online music store as community driven as TuneShout.
And in the end, that's what matters. When a user found out about an artist from a widget, they shouldn't be prompted to buy it right then. They should be taken back to a page all about that artist. A place where they can get to know them - maybe try out a few more of their songs. A place to read other reviews, see what other people thought about them. Then, in a day or 6 months from then, when they're ready to make their purchase - they can come back to the same place.