Starchive

It is hard to overestimate how this will change what the future of music and all art will look like post AI. We need ethical solutions to compensate the artists whose work was used to train today's models. We need creators to be able to choose if and how their content is used to train and improve models going forward, but the fact is, like the smartphone gave everyone the ability to create beautiful images and video, now everyone can create really great music if they can imagine it. https://lnkd.in/eDqy6ACE

YouTube’s growth highlights an insidious and poorly understood byproduct of the disruption process: when consumers’ definitions of quality change. And there’s pretty much nothing incumbents can do about it. Most people get how disruption happens: Barriers to entry fall, new entrants come into a market with an inferior product, but over time it gets better and eats into the incumbents' share, etc. Here’s the part that a lot of people don’t get: New entrants don’t only compete on the traditional measures of performance. Often, they also introduce new attributes and, if those resonate with consumers, they change what consumers value – they change the consumer definition of quality. A couple of months ago, I published a series of posts detailing four tectonic trends in media, including fragmentation of attention. (https://lnkd.in/eE2nd5bS) I explained that fragmentation is happening across media for two reasons: 1) falling barriers in production, marketing, distribution and monetization are resulting in an explosion of content; and 2) while most of this content is crappy by traditional measures of quality, the consumer definition of quality is changing. New attributes that consumers value include authenticity, relatability, relevance to my chosen community, undiscovered, etc. In the last couple of weeks, a few data points have underscored this is what’s happening in TV right now. * On Tuesday, Nielsen released The Gauge report for March, showing that YouTube now represents almost 10% of all viewing on TVs in the U.S., a new high water mark. For a long time, the argument was that short-form/UGC is not competitive with professionally-produced content because it serves a different use case. But this is exactly the same use case: watching on a TV. * BCG, Accenture and Deloitte all published new surveys in the last few weeks showing what many of us sense intuitively: many consumers, especially young consumers, say they prefer short form/UGC over professionally produced content. All of this is highlighted in the slides below. Big media companies are scrambling to do what’s within their power, like find the next hit; optimize yield management on their ad inventory; reduce costs; figure out how to price, package and bundle to reduce churn, etc. But there’s not much they can do to fend off a changing definition of quality.

Music is entering a massive shift. I analyzed reports from RIAA, IFPI and Luminate to uncover key trends shaping music's future. Come take a look where music's going ↓ First things first - recorded music had a big year: → Growing 10.2% to a record $28.2b globally → And 7.5% to a record $17.1b in the US But, there are major shifts happening. I'll focus on 3: 1. Streaming's growth decline 2. Fan focused formats 3. Direct to fan Ok, let's go... 𝟭. 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘅𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝘂𝘁 Paid subscriptions in the US have reached 97 million, but growth keeps slowing. 2019: 28.8% 2020: 25.0% 2021: 11.3% 2022: 9.1% 2023: 5.7% Passive consumption has been pushed to its brink. Music's new growth trajectory will come from fandom, interactivity & creation itself. 𝟮. 𝗣𝗵𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰'𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹 Physical sales outgrew streaming in the US: → Physical +10.5% → Streaming +8.6% And globally: +13.4% to +10.4%. In fact, the 5-year growth rate of US vinyl is 182%. Fans want new 'units of fandom', and I believe the door is wide open for new formats. 𝟯. 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 D2F is the fastest growing form of music consumption in the US. → Up 27.8% from 2022 → Direct vinyl is up even more at 38%! And new models of direct monetization are emerging. A direct artist-fan relationship is more important than ever as we drown out to 120k+ tracks per day. - Consumption is increasingly fragmented - Reach is increasingly unreliable Knowing your fans is now a superpower. -- 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀: 1. Streaming is maxing out 2. The time is ripe for new formats 3. Direct fan relationships are the new gold Music's entering a new era. Get on board. --- This just scratches the surface. Get the rest of my deep dive in Where Music's Going this week: https://lnkd.in/exkVzDCq

Love the clarity of this and Scott Hartley's emphasis on the human connection between customers and a brand that tells a story they see themselves in. If you are into the art of storytelling, check out https://lnkd.in/gGvA-aA2.

Do you know what media is on all your old hard drives? A new Seagate partner Starchive aims to revolutionizes content management and how content creators of all types store and leverage their creative work. Check out their site, app or this case study. https://lnkd.in/gcebGHJZ

Do you know what media is on all your old hard drives? A new Seagate partner Starchive aims to revolutionizes content management and how content creators of all types store and leverage their creative work. Check out their site, app or this case study. https://lnkd.in/gcebGHJZ