Music in the Digital Age: The Era of Streaming

If you haven’t been paying attention to the music industry as of late, we are way into the era of streaming services. However, according to this Billboard article, lead music streaming service, Spotify, lost $581 million dollars in 2016. However, if you look at the recent data from Nielsen from 2016 (below), on-demand audio streaming was up by 76.4%. So, what gives?

2016 streaming data from Nielsen

I would argue that the reason audio streaming has struggled to turn a profit is that because so many of these streaming services (like Spotify and Pandora) offer free versions of their product, it’s very difficult to make a profit. Storing music and streaming it to millions of people requires lots of infrastructure which gets very expensive very fast. Therefore, if most music streaming users are using free versions of services instead of the paid version, it’s no surprise that these companies are struggling to turn a profit!

I was talking with a classmate in my Brand and Product Management Class today about Spotify and he informed me that, apparently, they will be partnering with video streaming service, Hulu. If you start a premium Spotify account, you will receive access to Hulu for free. This accomplishes two things. First, it gives people an incentive to get Spotify premium ($5 for students, $10 for everyone else). Second, from Hulu’s perspective, they are receiving free brand recognition (advertising) within Spotify’s user base. This helps them attract a larger audience who might otherwise go to Netflix or Amazon.

As streaming becomes an even larger part of our society, differentiation among brands will become vital and that’s what we’re seeing in both the video streaming and audio streaming space. As far as who will gain control of the music streaming market, I would argue it’s Spotify for now, but only time will tell.

Want to know more about streaming? I’ll be doing a research paper on this topic for my Marketing Research class and would love to get your thoughts on the rough draft which I’ll post in a few weeks!

Stay tuned!

Sample Rate? What’s that?

So, a lot of people get confused on what sample rate is. The best analogy I have for sample rate is the resolution for your TV or computer monitor. “HD” is a term to describe the resolution of a TV screen with the dimensions of Height: 1080 pixels and Width: 1920 pixels. Thus, we call it 1080p.

Similarly, the sample rate you set your DAW to is the resolution you record your project at. That being said, a higher resolution is obviously better, right? Well, technically yes. A higher sample rate means that more “samples” of your instrument are being taken as the track is recorded. A recorded take is actually a collection of individual samples put together just as a video is a collection of individual pictures (or frames).

But, as the human ear cannot hear beyond 48kHz, there really is no reason to record at a higher resolution than this. Sure, you could record at 192kHz but, what’s the point? At that point, you’re just taking up space on your hard drive.

Are You Mixing With your Ears or Your Eyes?

When I was in eighth grade, I started getting interested in sound at my church. While I can’t explain what went through my head exactly, I just knew something about seeing all of those meters and “flashy lights” intrigued me. I began volunteering with my church’s youth ministry and, almost a decade later, I have found myself just as intrigued with sound as I was then.

When I was first learning about sound, one of the biggest mistakes that I made was to use my eyes instead of my ears when building a mix. Why not? All of the information I need to make a mixing decision is on my screen/console, right? It was around this point when my mentor/teacher (one of the church’s A/V guys) taught me one of, –if not the most important lesson– I’ve ever learned about mixing. EQ graphs are great; metering is awesome, and all of those “flashy lights” are beneficial. But, your ears are the most important tool in your mixing toolbox. It might sound way too simple at first but think about it. How are all of the parts in your recording interacting in your mix? Are you making your decisions based on how things sound to your ear? Or, have you decided that all the information you need is within your ProTools session?

What you see on your screen should be only to verify what you hear. Arguably, mixing is more of an art than a science. Mixing a song should be a form of expression; not a mechanical process.

So, my fellow recording enthusiasts…are you mixing your songs with your ears, or with your eyes?

Do you have a business or a hobby?

How do you know if your passion for recording is a business or a hobby? As someone who grew up accumulating all things sound, this is a question I haven’t asked myself until quite recently. I always bought gear or software with the idea that “I’m investing in my education. This will pay off someday.”

I’ve told myself this throughout college while I haven’t really seen the return on my investment other than my growing knowledge of the field.

Sure, I’m good at mixing and mastering but, that doesn’t really matter unless I can find paying clients. 

A business person would be asking questions like the following:

• “How do I maximize profit?”
• “What’s my return on investment?”
• “How do I grow my client base?”

I am a strong proponent of following your dreams. But, the biggest lesson I’ve learned in life thus far (at 21) is that there are many ways to reach the finish line. I am currently a digital marketing intern for a company in Atlanta where I am developing content promotional strategies, designing websites, creating graphics, and more. I already have the knowledge and experience in audio and music production. What I don’t have yet is the business know-how to actually run a business and market my service. But hopefully, with a bit of work and research, I’ll get there. So, the next time you want to spend hours researching that plugin or piece of outboard gear, I encourage you to do a little research into social media, digital marketing, and more. This industry you and I are involved in is super expense heavy where people invest thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on their gear. But, what’s the return on investment? If you are in this industry to make a living, you need to do some serious research into business practices and principles if you hope to get your startup off the ground.

So, the next time you want to spend hours researching that plugin or piece of outboard gear, I encourage you to do a little research into social media, digital marketing, and more. This industry you and I are involved in is super expense heavy where people invest thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars into their gear. But, what’s the return on investment? If you are in this industry to make a living, you and I need to do some serious research into business practices and principles if you hope to get your startup off the ground.

And hopefully, with a lot of work and a little luck, we’ll get there.

Thanks for reading!

Hello World!

Hi there! First off, allow me to introduce myself! My name’s David! I’ve been working in the audio industry for around 10 years now. This is a blog that I’m creating as a way of sharing tips and tricks I learn as I go about building my career in the industry. What I’m learning so far is that no matter how good I am at the recording, it’s important to also have a solid business strategy. A recording studio is not a cheap investment and unless you can bring enough clients to at least cover your costs (let alone make a living), your investment won’t ever pay off. That being said, as a marketing major, one of my biggest goals, as I begin to work in this industry, is to think like a businessman first and a producer second. What should I set my rate at to be competitive? How much should I invest into equipment to provide a quality product while still minimizing cost to my business? How do I market my business to clients when the majority of this industry is based on word of mouth marketing? Is word of mouth marketing really the most efficient strategy?

These are all questions that any aspiring engineer (or band for that matter!) should be considering if they really want to make a career in the music business.

So join me, my fellow enthusiast. Let’s explore what it takes to make a mark in this industry. I’ll share whatever knowledge I gain with you and would love to get your feedback as I go.

Thanks for reading!