Billboard announces new Subscription Services "on-demand songs" chart.

According to Billboard.biz, Billboard, Nielsen and NARM's digitalmusic.org launched the first-ever subscription services on-demand songs chart. The data collected for this chart will also be included in the industry's most popular Billboard Hot 100 chart. The Billboard Hot 100 chart is based on digital download track sales, physical singles sales, radio airplay and now streaming services. These streaming services are tracked by Nielsen BDS.

The new Subscription chart is solely based on data from Nielson BDS. The company tracks streaming activity since 2005 and measures music channels such as MOG, Muve Music, Rdio, Rhapsody, Slacker and Sportify. Through the first 70 days of 2012, the company has recognized more than 4.5 billion audio streams.

Billboard's editorial director Bill Werde, commented on the new development:

"Billboard always recognizes trends in the way fans experience music. With some of these services growing exponentially and integrating into the social web, the time is right to launch a streaming chart and to incorporate this activity into the Hot 100"

With the new formula in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, music consumers gain more direct influence on the chart's ranking because they can decide what they want to stream at what time instead of indirectly changing the radio channel, that they are listen to if they don't like a song.

Additionally, the new streaming chart will also measure on demand video request services like Akoo, Yahoo! and Vevo.

The new streaming chart and the updated Billboard Hot 100 went online on March 16.

Streaming services and on-demand music is a highly growing segment in today’s music industry. Major labels such as Sony are currently launching their own streaming platforms (Sony Music Entertainment) and consumers start to use these services on devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs. Further many customers listen to radio online nowadays by streaming their favorite radio channels.

Billboard staff (2012). Billboard, Nielsen, DigitalMusic.org Launch First-Ever Subscription Services "On-Demand Songs' Chart Retrieved Sunday March 25^th, 2012 via: http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/billboard-nielsen-digitalmusic-org-launch-1006451952.story

Voicemail receives rotation add for “I Got Love” on major radio station BigFM in Germany.

Internationally acclaimed Jamaican dancehall reggae outfit Voicemail recently completed work on its latest album Next Level which is to be released by the US-based Captivate Music. The entertainers arrived back in Jamaica last weekend after spending a week in NYC in order to work on their album project. Besides recording sessions and photo shoots, Kevin & Craig gave various Interviews in which they introduced the first single “I Got Love” of their upcoming album to the public.

Voicemail received great feedback from underground blogs as well as from mass media for their latest release. Popular blogs associated the song to the style of Sean Kingston and described it as “Summer Smash!”. The german radio station BigFM added the song to it’s rotation in January after airing an Interview with the group. Voicemail also did an exclusive dubplate recoding for the morning show of the station. Kevin and Craig are especially happy about reaching their international target group through the channel. BigFM has approximately 250.000 listeners per hour with the average age of 26 in the south of Germany.

Kevin said: “This is is a great opportunity for us to build an audience in a major music market such as Germany. We’re significantly interested in a steady growth of our fan bases overseas, especially in Japan, where we have lots of fans as well as in Europe and of course the U.S.”

Craig added:”I’m glad that customers in Germany appreciate our sound and our image. As a real authentic caribbean act, we want to show the uniqueness of our home country Jamaica to people around the globe.”

Germany becomes Europe's largest music market.

According to billboard.biz and the IFPI Digital Music Report, Germany overtook the U.K in the revenue generated by physical sales, online sales and performance rights collection. Let's compare these 3 different income areas between the U.K and Germany in order to understand the development on both music markets in recent years.

Physical sales:

The U.K. market made $1.38 billion in 2010. This was a decline of 11% compared to 2009. Germany in turn made $1.41 billion in physical sales, what accounts for 81% of all sold music. The U.K. is more established in the digital market, which grows from year to year. 25% of all recorded music purchased in the U.K. comes from digital sources. One major reason, why Germany makes more money in traditional music sales is the consumer interest in "Deluxe Versions" of albums and the strategy to release simplified packaged CDs month after the initial release to place them in the lower price segment.

Digital market:

The major reason, why the U.K. falls in the ranking of international music markets, is the changeover from physical to digital sales. The U.K. increased digital album sales from 12.5% to 17.5% in 2010. The appetite for digital sales continues and so it is very likely that the U.K. market will return to its old position in the ranking in 2012. In Germany digital sales totaled only $178 million. iTunes is the most popular online retailer on both markets. The U.K. has also made the transition to subscription services like Sportify, while in Germany ongoing battles between the collection society GEMA and subscription services as well as advertisement based video platforms such as YouTube VEVO avoid any progress in this field.

Performance Rights:

The U.K. is the market leader in performing rights. It collected $111 million in rights revenue in 2010, what is equivalent to 8% of total recorded music sales. Germany is also strong in this sector and copyright owners earned $91 million in rights revenue the same year, what is equivalent to 6% of total sales.

The U.K. market is very strong in collection performance royalties overseas, while Germany is more successful in marketing domestic artists. In this context, it becomes clear why the U.K. is the second most important source for A&R behind the U.S.

Richard Smirke (2011). How Germany Overtook The U.K. To Become Europe's Largest Music Market. Retrieved January 22th, 2011, from: http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/global/ifpi-2011-report-global-recorded-music-sales-1005100902.story

IFPI (2011). Digital Music Report. Retrieved January 22th, 2011, from: www.ifpi.org/content/library/DMR2011.pdfwww.ifpi.org/content/library/DMR2011.pdf

Yonah (2011). UK Music Market Beaten by Germany. Retrieved January 22th, 2011, from: http://www.p2pon.com/2011/04/07/uk-music-market-beaten-by-germany

Adobe Social Analytics Suite

In my blog post, I want to give an overview on the new social media - marketing suite of Adobe, which was introduced to the European markets in November 2011. In order to get an understanding about the software, its purpose and its potential target audience, I've listened to an interview with Chad Warren, who is Senior Manager, Product Marketing for Social Media at Adobe's headquarters in the U.S. In this 24 minutes long interview, he talks about the need to use such a program, the internal setup of the software, the desired users and the difference between Adobe Social Analytics and competitors. Additionally, I examined a presentation, which he uses to present the software on conventions.

THE NEED TO USE THE PROGRAM

"Deciding how to measure the value of an investment in social media is the highest priority for marketing directors in Europe" Chad Warren 2011.

Marketing budgets are moving and marketing directors have to decide how much they invest in social media. 78% of these managers don't have a complete view of social campaigns.

Between 2012 and 2014, Adobe estimate, that 94% more money will be spend in social media ads in Germany. The company estimate an increase of 60% in the UK, and 83% in France. At the same time social media will compete against traditional websites.

At its core, the software should help businesses to monitor, measure and monetize the impact of social media on their business.

INTERNAL SETUP OF THE SOFTWARE

The software captures all relevant conversations on blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc. Further, it determines the mood of the conversations. Finally, the software measures the impact of these conversations on the business. The software should ultimately help marketers to gain information on their social media campaigns and to make appropriate changes in order to create more impact and to reach people more effectively.

The software particularly tracks influencers on social media. Chad Warren defines an influencer in two different ways. The first metrics he uses is the reach of an influencer. This means, how many followers the person has or how many interactions the person has? The other way is to measure if the person drive revenue to the business.

 The adobe analytics window is separated into 4 parts:

- Share of Voice,

- Marketing Performance,

- Marketing Strategy and

- Influencers.

WHO WILL USE THIS SOFTWARE MOSTLY?

Adobe Analytics can be used by professionals and beginners. Their typical background comes from marketing together with PR experience. At the same time other people such as traditional marketers or people with a financial controlling function within a company should be able to use the software as well.

The software is interesting for both, agencies and organizations. For the introduction of the software, agencies are very important, because agencies do new and innovate things and so they might be the first, who work with Adobe Analytics. But Adobe's aim is to get the software to organizations in order to become the market leader in social media analytics.

In the beginning of social media marketing organizations asked agencies for help. But organizations had been often not interested in a long-term relationship, because they recognized very soon, that they needed the skills internal. This development can be repeated with social media analytics software in general.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

The software:

-       connects social media to business results by using multi-channel analytics.

-       brings social media into the marketing mix by extending traditional monitoring and measurement as an integrated component.

-       facilitates real-time marketing intelligence by showing most popular feedback of current marketing strategy and messaging.

-       closes the social marketing loop by showing how social marketing converts into orders and revenue,

Adobe Analytics is the future of social media tools. There will be a lot of consolidation in the market place. On one hand, marketing managers will use one suite for all their needs. Adobe has this integrated approach and includes various tools connected to each other in the suite. Fragmentation could happen for businesses with special needs. Social media analytics can be useful for other branches as well. Adobe focuses on marketing only.

Interview direct link (MP3): http://traffic.libsyn.com/fir/fir-adobechadwarren.mp3

Presentation direct link (PDF): http://social-optimisation.com/downloads/Adobe_London.pdf