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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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