Analyst: Streaming Music May Already Be Hitting A Ceiling
Subscription services like Rdio, Mog, Rhapsody and Spotify promise to restore stronger growth to the music industry. The model’s best hope, Spotify, has four million paying subscribers.
But what are the real prospects for the sector? Music industry analyst Mark Mulligan, presenting at Future Music Forum in Barcelona on Thursday, sounded a note of caution…
“There is a natural ceiling of adoption of the people who are willing to pay $9.99 a month for music they don’t own“.
“If you look at growth from launch, Spotify is – at best – on par with where we should be. The likes of imeem were the future of the music industry once, too. The most Vodafone (UK) got to was about 600,000 customers – Spotify’s (UK) paying subscriber count is about 600,000 to 800,000“.
“This market should be much more dynamic than where we are now. It’s a niche proposition. The majority of mass-market consumers are still not interested in that pricepoint.”
Mulligan said he was not discrediting the efforts of music streaming services that are currently facing off against each other. Indeed, “It took Rhapsody 11 years to get to one million users, it took Spotify nine quarters.” But Mulligan noted the difficulty they will have in taking the model mainstream beyond early unlimited-access fans:…Read the full story at Paidcontent.org
Related posts:
- It’s Time For Transparency On Music Streaming Rates
- Site Review – MOG Music Streaming Service
- Who’s Who In The New Music Gold Rush
- Are There Too Many Music Streaming Services?
- New PRS Streaming Rates: What Do They Mean for Artists and Streaming Businesses Alike?
Posted by Robert Andrews
on Sep 25 2012. Filed under Business Models, Digital.
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