Encouragingly, I have noticed a change in digital music this year, which is allowing music to be heard as musicians, songwriters, producers and engineers intended. The market is becoming more focused on high quality and we at 7Digital predict the beginning of the end of MP3 compression and a move to CD and better-than-CD quality downloads and streams. This can only be a good thing for musicians and music fans alike.
Meanwhile, the shift from physical to digital continues to accelerate in 2012. This is being driven by increased consumer adoption of devices such and iPads and smartphones. Connected home audio systems are no longer CD based and the transition to fully connected cars is approaching ever faster.
Music consumption is still high, with consumers discovering new music in a variety of new ways including innovative mobile apps, interactive radio services and on-demand streaming services.
7digital has always had a platform agnostic approach and built technologies to support all business models. This is proving successful as we can focus on our core platforms while allowing our partners to explore new markets and features that are optimised to their devices or services.
Moving onwards from the access versus ownership debate, which attempts to assess when music streaming will trump downloading as the preferred method to listen to music, we believe both rental and ownership will continue to have an important role to play.
Consumers simply want access to the music they like and be able to discover new music quickly and easily. On the discovery side, we see interactive radio filling a bit of this role along with ad-funded subscription services. The monthly premium subscription is valued by dedicated music fans but we are hopeful adoption will increase as the services are bundled with devices or other content tariffs.
In short, 7digital is optimistic about the digital music market in 2012. In this increasingly technology-centric world, there has been a tendency for the big companies to forget the real value in music. The art of the song is at the heart of everything and we’re optimistic that the technological revolution that has brought music in new ways to millions of people will lead back to a new appreciation of the value of songwriter and musician.
Ben Drury is co-founder and Chief Executive of 7Digital. Established in 2004, 7Digital is a leading digital media delivery company with offices in London, Luxembourg and Los Angeles and operating globally. It provides comprehensive digital download services to a wide range of partners while managing its own download stores in over 37 countries. 7Digital’s partners include Universal Music, EMI, Warner Music, Sony, P&G and Toshiba.
Meanwhile, the shift from physical to digital continues to accelerate in 2012. This is being driven by increased consumer adoption of devices such and iPads and smartphones. Connected home audio systems are no longer CD based and the transition to fully connected cars is approaching ever faster.
Music consumption is still high, with consumers discovering new music in a variety of new ways including innovative mobile apps, interactive radio services and on-demand streaming services.
7digital has always had a platform agnostic approach and built technologies to support all business models. This is proving successful as we can focus on our core platforms while allowing our partners to explore new markets and features that are optimised to their devices or services.
Moving onwards from the access versus ownership debate, which attempts to assess when music streaming will trump downloading as the preferred method to listen to music, we believe both rental and ownership will continue to have an important role to play.
Consumers simply want access to the music they like and be able to discover new music quickly and easily. On the discovery side, we see interactive radio filling a bit of this role along with ad-funded subscription services. The monthly premium subscription is valued by dedicated music fans but we are hopeful adoption will increase as the services are bundled with devices or other content tariffs.
In short, 7digital is optimistic about the digital music market in 2012. In this increasingly technology-centric world, there has been a tendency for the big companies to forget the real value in music. The art of the song is at the heart of everything and we’re optimistic that the technological revolution that has brought music in new ways to millions of people will lead back to a new appreciation of the value of songwriter and musician.
Ben Drury is co-founder and Chief Executive of 7Digital. Established in 2004, 7Digital is a leading digital media delivery company with offices in London, Luxembourg and Los Angeles and operating globally. It provides comprehensive digital download services to a wide range of partners while managing its own download stores in over 37 countries. 7Digital’s partners include Universal Music, EMI, Warner Music, Sony, P&G and Toshiba.
