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Spotify Wrapped 2019 has been the buzz of the internet since its release last week. Find out the behind the scenes scoop of how this project works!
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Spotify Quarterly Earnings Takeaways
The Spotify Quarterly Earnings report showed an astonishing amount of Subscribers. Currently Spotify Premium has 113 million subscribers and 141 million ad-supported subscribers “free version”. It is clear that Spotify is staying ahead of Apple music and Amazon in engagement and reach. Spotify is really honing in on their brand expansion across new markets such as Latin America and India. The brand is being baked into the advertising and expansion of artists in these new markets.
By getting behind the artists Spotify is able to become intertwined to the local culture and talent pipeline related to music. Spotify is strategically aligning with large corporations such as Google to try to become fully integrated into peoples lives (homes, cars, etc.). The Spotify Quarterly Earnings Report expands upon the promotion of Family Plan Subscribers getting a free Google Home simply for being a subscriber of Spotify. By partnering strategically with large corporations and the focus on joining the cultures of markets they are entering; Spotify has been able to capture bright future prospects for users and their experience on the app. Spotify for Artists has been a hit for artist trying to Partner and gain tools from Spotify. This is another example of Spotify trying to integrate their brand into creators and consumers minds alike.
One area Spotify saw a surprising growth on their platform and positive effects as a result was Podcasting. Over 14% of Monthly Active Users also listed to at least one full podcast episode. Although it is early in the days of podcasting, Spotify is proving to be a destination for creators and listeners alike. Spotify is also pulling a play out of Netflix’s book by focusing expanding their own generated content for podcasts including investing in the hosts themselves. This is a genius moves that allows the brand of Spotify to continue to be looked at as a fully integrated audio-technology company. The podcasting industry as a whole is still in its infancy; as the market expands massively over the next ten years Spotify will be in place to capture the most incremental value. Spotify in this quarter alone saw 22 of their own shows launch with tremendous engagement.
Subsequently, Spotify is expanding usable tools and dashboards for podcast producers to attract new producers towards the platform. This theme is evident in the previous aquisitions of companies such as Anchor, SoundBetter, and Gimlet. Apple Music and Amazon music have not laid the infrastructure that Spotify has for future capturing on a quickly expanding medium. Spotify is without a doubt ahead of the game when laying the infrastructure for the future of audio and the experience around it. Competitors have been unable to match the velocity of Spotify’s moves on emerging markets due to the nature of music as well as some wit/experience. The app experience of course always brings people back to the best music listening experience possible allowing for massive leverage for Spotify and where they want to steer the industry.
How opportunity begets innovation – And why the time is always right for the next big thing
COMING SOON
Music Streaming is a Democratizing Force
Streaming has opened up so many doors in today’s technological world for listeners. Back in the day you used to have to burn a CD, buy a physical record, use a cassette tape, illegally download the song, or more recently go straight to iTunes and pay for it. Companies like Spotify, Amazon, and Apple are the reasons why we can stream so effortlessly due to the powers of the internet and the colossal effect of on-demand streaming. Streaming not only opened up many doors for listeners like you and me, but also for artists, record labels, and people trying to get more exposure through music.
The music streaming industry has had a lag compared to the after effects of internet on many industries. The internet brought great innovation and great changes to the world, but the music sector was one of the last to be effected. Although the music industry was one of the last mediums that really had a profound effect due the internet, it’s all catching up! The industry has changed forever due to music streaming. Every vertical of the music industry is learning just how effective and improved music consumption is now compared to the legacy system. The idea of discovering and recommending music used to be hard to find. The only way for this back in the day was at social gathers, a car ride “i.e cassettes”, radio, or more formally word of mouth. Now you can be in your living room or in your bed, finding the next inspiring song that can get you motivated to attack the day.
Spotify offers you recommendations of new artists and like-minded music on their platform. The genius comes when you listen to music you like; naturally without any additional work, Spotify can recommend music to you that you will actually enjoy thanks to their advanced algorithms. Previously you would have never heard this music elsewhere, whether it’s because of geographic position or the lack of time to go through every song in a catalog across every artist in the world. Music streaming made this process condensed; you listen to a song and magically, a song thats similar pops up next. Playlists that had never been congregated before are simply waiting for us to press play. Music streaming is a generational democratizing force. People sometimes feel as if Spotify is charging too much, or that they aren’t paying the artist fairly. This is inherently bogus.
Spotify democratized music for artist, listeners, and everyone else involved in music streaming including legacy music businesses like record labels. Artists can simply record and using a couple clicks get their music uploaded to Spotify. Previously artists may have had to go through multiple record labels before getting their song on a single radio station. The artist had to be ultra-creative to get their song heard by someone in the first place. We have all heard one-hit wonders previously, but now content like Old Town Road or Gangnam Style is easily shared across borders. This not only make our lives better, but also makes the artist’s life better forever. One song can change the world; companies like Spotify & Apple show us this on a daily basis and built business models around this theme.
There hasn’t been a day that I’ve woken up and listened to a song and it not have changed my mood for the rest of the day. Music can put us in a better state of mind; it is one of the few things that connects us to our ancestors of eons past. Another huge democratizing effect of music streaming is people controlling what they listen to at all times. It’s innate in every human to want to control the experience they are living at least to some extent. With music specifically people want to control what they are listening to. The radio is great whenever there is no other music coming inbound; the radio picks up invisible airways out of thin air and is able to play music for you, a miraculous feat of technology. However, it’s obvious the next inevitable innovation after that should allow for an on-demand music selection of any song on any catalog across the world.
Spotify allowed for this to happen. When people can express themselves through their music selection, you can find out more about those people, their cultures, and the way they are living the human experience. Music streaming is only going to exponentially expand, because it has the great effects of the internet and human psyche behind it. At Brassroots we see music streaming in the future being a high bandwidth experience in a connected fashion.
We have seen this theme with social media companies of the past. People want to be together and express feelings to each other by sharing their version of the human experience. The best way to do that is through music! Right now music is stationary. You listen to a song , press pause/pay, then it’s over. You can’t share that experience with someone else unless you live together, are at a concert, or an event. That’s all changed with Brassroots. You can have a collaborative music experience with anyone in the world from your living room. Collaborative music streaming can be as easy as just listening to a song. I think the world and more importantly, individuals love to connect through one of the best mediums known to humankind, listening to music. There’s no telling the heights music streaming will reach in the future, but it’s definitely still in its earliest days. We should be excited for the future of music, it is just getting started.
Powerful Cognitive Experiences Will Illicit Unimaginable Innovation
Powerful Cognitive Experiences
The wonders of modern technology allow everyone to create cognitive experiences that illicit joy and happiness while being productive in the forward push towards innovation. At Tuner Inc we embody this thematic in the construction of our flagship app Brassroots. We serve clients who are looking to improve their businesses and lives. Great experiences are one of the core tenants that make the human life unimaginably inspiring for ourselves and the future of the species itself.
There have been many companies, applications, and places that empower the spirit of the user/customer through a positive cognitive experience that has lifetime value; we will highlight a few that stand out and inspire us constantly. Apple, Walt Disney, and Spotify are examples of entities which provide powerful positive cognitive experiences to a wide variety of people by their capitalization of inspiring innovation. Tuner seeks to mimic the inspiring innovation of these companies by democratizing music streaming along with the distribution networks for music content, allowing artists, listeners, and fans alike to take part in a musical innovation for the masses.
Apple
Steve Jobs and the early success of Apple Inc, was an inspiration to everyone that fell slightly outside any preordained systemized constraints. The motto “Think Different” embodied the power of innovation Apple was bringing to the world as well as the powerful cognitive experience of feeling apart of a revolution larger than oneself. The digital economy created by Steve Jobs should be documented as one of the single largest contributions to the ideal of innovation since the origination of the Internet itself. By creating products useable by everyone across America and a systemized marketplace for developers to centralize their applications, Jobs opened up the creativity in millions of people’s minds while promoting innovation for the greater good.
Jobs through his work allowed for the creator in all of us to emerge digitally through the Apple Computer and apps on the Apple App Store marketplace. Apple’s work has lead to the rise of apps with enriched cognitive experiences that connect the user, their friends, and people of the world. The building blocks of these Apple products is of course the widely accessible operating systems including the flagship IOS throughout the history of the Apple product lines. A key reason why Apple’s phones are able to produce many layers of powerful cognitive experiences are the user interfaces that allow anyone from any age group to instantly pickup the phone and know inherently what they are doing.
Steve Jobs was able to tap into many features/habits we all share as humans and bake that down to the design of the iPhone and the operating system itself. Tuner Inc, a Garland, Texas bred company, would certainly not be able to produce the democratization of music streaming via Brassroots if Steve Jobs did not lay the framework and lore for young adults like us to think creatively to our fullest extent to get the most out of our life on Earth.
The Walt Disney Company
The late Walt Disney was a master of detail; from Disney movies to their flagship parks every small detail brings upon a sensory or nostalgic reaction to the onlooker. The reason The Walt Disney Company stands as the top content creator and a destination for over 52 million people today is their ability to story tell in a high quality consistent fashion. There is no doubt that movies such as the Little Mermaid or Pinocchio which were masterfully crafted in the 1940s, are still relevant today due to their innate ability to tap into human emotions and archetypal themes that are common across generations. People long for nostalgic positive cognitive memories that still relay value for where they currently stand in life.
The Disney brand has cultivated the human cognitive experience so well that it has never met a border it could not cross. When watching a Disney movie or visiting a Disney Park you remember all the great memories previously made, but also are able to relate those to your current situation, which is the positive cognitive feedback loop that brings value to people’s lives and the Disney bottom line. Humans long for high quality memories, if the stimulus of detail in a Park or movie can illicit this you will continue to come back for decades and likely pass that tradition down to the next generation.
There are core powerful cognitive experiences that are inherently enjoyable, through well crafted long lasting characters and fantasy worlds such as Mickey Mouse or the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney was able to transcend time and deliver those experiences to the masses. Characters that are outside our everyday realm hold a nearly heavenly aura around them that allows people of any time period to relate to them and draw meaning from their lessons or motives.
The nature of story building is mirrored by our predecessors throughout history. Stories and more importantly ideas are the engine that bring positive experiences which connect every human being to one another regardless of their life or geographic circumstance. Creating ideas that have repeatable and evolutionary value will undoubtedly stand the test of time by making people’s life better through positive experience.
Spotify
Music has brought people, tribes, and ideas together since the dawn of humanity. In modern times Spotify has reached toward the peak of musical cognitive experiences by widely distributing music from around the world to anyone via their smart phone. Spotify has done this by allowing anyone from any corner of the globe to be immersed cognitively in the innately human experience of creating and listening to music. The most sacred moments throughout history are usually paired with music that brings certain emotions to the forefront.
Music can shape perception in a powerful notion that very few other mediums can match. You will never find someone that doesn’t enjoy music; it is almost as if our brains have been evolutionary shaped to allow music and the ideas it generates within ourselves to seep through the noise and suffering of daily life. Spotify in a stroke of genius played off this powerful medium by utilizing modern technology to harness the full effect that music could rain down over the inhabitants of the world.
As a business there is no market cap that can value the intrinsic benefits that Spotify has brought to the world and the resultant cultural immersion that ensued from democratizing the music industry. Spotify has brought people together through one of the most ancient human traditions of listening to music. Tuner Inc. seeks to take the next step, rather than democratizing the music through a vast catalogue open to the world, we seek to connect people via the medium of music. Being able to share music and the feelings it created within you, should be as easy as a text message.
Spotify has indubitably laid the ground work for the reach the medium of music can have across the world via a smartphone. We at Tuner Inc, believe we can raise the bandwidth between the music and the connectivity of people throughout the world. By joining people’s live sessions the bandwidth of the musical cognitive experience can be brought to a peak between the listener, friends, and the world. The future of music is collaborative in nature, just has it had been for the prior 20,000 years before the invention of the record label. We at Tuner Inc via the Brassroots app, will illicit positive powerful cognitive experiences to be brought upon by the modern marvels of technology with collaborative music streaming, in hopes of empowering individuals and the communal experience.
Make sure to sign up for the Beta for the Brassroots music app at brassrootsapp.com.