The Music industry needs a new currency
Music is not worthless | part II
This is part 2 of a series that discusses the value of music in the age of streaming and how the industry can leverage online music beyond ads and the 9.99 model.
Out of the general doom and gloom surrounding music these days, there are interesting stories at the roots of why we think the value of music is not decreasing. It is just shifting from content towards user experience. Companies need to build a great music experience and people will pay for music again. Exactly like Apple did with their close to perfect integration between hardware (iPod) and software (iTunes).
Music is not worthless. Content has less value, but the music experience is gold.
And this is not just a theory, it is the underlying reason why the big GAMA (Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon) are throwing billions of dollars to crack the best way to experience your 30M songs catalog at home.
Their approach so far is to consider music as any digital experience trying to reduce friction and build the perfect remote control that allows you to play what you want, when you want it at home. However, a good music experience is beyond how many songs you can play or how fast you can do it. It is grounded on complex rational and emotional interactions between a listener, the content and its creator.
What if the best streaming experience is tangible?
Humans have evolved a very sophisticated ability to sense and manipulate the physical world. By technical necessity music as an object took advantage of this capacity. Because they were physical, records allowed seamless discovery and engagement just by their simple presence in a room. They facilitated gifting, and created a playful experience around music.
Confining music behind screens makes it impossible to feel and confirm its existence and thus to appreciate its value.
Since the emergence of streaming, playing music is considered by our brain as any other activity we perform on a computer or a phone. This creates a sense of detachment and a lack of intimacy between the listener and the content. By giving a physical form to the streaming experience, our body and brain perceive it as a familiar representation in space and time and can engage our senses to enable a better experience for the listener.
We’ve been talking to our users since the product launched almost 6 months ago. And almost unanimously, they emphasize how Qleek is changing their music streaming habits. We’ve compiled the three most frequent comments. They basically describe Qleek as a way to bring rituals, sharing and simplicity to streaming. Which we think are the lacking features that can bring value back to music.
- “It’s easier to play music at home” — we used to play music by putting a record in a slot. Now you have to unlock your phone, open an app, wait for it to load, type in the name of the playlist you want and finally press play. It’s too much work. With Qleek, playing your Discover Weekly becomes close to a subconscious act.
- Because people see my music, they ask about it” — we’re social creatures even more when it comes to music. We love to discuss the artists we love or hate. We feel satisfaction and pride in sharing our favorite songs or when we discover new good ones. A good music experience should include everybody in the room and not just the logged in user.
- “It’s easier to know what you want when you see it” — we are creatures of habits, and our brain loves shortcuts and offloading work. The best music experience should be integrated in our daily routine. Devices should help us know what we want to play, rather than waiting for us to shout out exotic playlists names.
