How Technology Shapes Content and Business Models (Or Audio’s Opportunity and Who Will Capture It) — MatthewBall.co

To support engagement-based monetization, Spotify and its label suppliers had to define engagement. And they chose to do this on a per stream basis with a minimum stream time of 30 seconds (to avoid accidental plays, track skipping, etc.). However, this meant that a 10-minute track, five-minute track and 31-second track generated the same royalties... See more

Matching revenue with usage is intuitive, but it was never before possible in music. There was no way to track at-home record spins or CD plays, let alone charge for them.

This behaviour has been greatly exacerbated by the advent of a new and even more disruptive digital music technology: on-demand streaming. While iTunes was technically innovative, its business model was not.

As most of the major media categories — music, video and video games — have existed for decades, we tend to forget that media is technology.

This focus on delivery ignores the classic definition of media: “outlets or tools used to store and deliver information or data.”

On its surface, the shift to digital audio should have led to further increases in song length. After all, there was no longer any limitation to run-time. However, the reverse occurred. Technology might have relaxed its grip on music’s length, but it had strengthened its hold on business models.

In recent years, we’ve seen the rise of spatial audio, Apple AirPods, digital walkie talkies, audio-based meditation and mindfulness services like Headspace (I’m an investor), and social audio experiences like Discord and Clubhouse.