Hello everybody, my name is William Funck and I am a curious, entrepreneurial and multitasked digital marketer.

Two years ago I attended the IM4 master at MIP (those were good times).
I have now been working for well over a year as a digital marketing specialist, building communication plans across various digital channels, conceiving and implementing organic and paid campaigns, in one of the most dynamic and ever-changing fields: the music industry!

 

Key facts about the recording music industry

15.7 billion dollars is the value of the global recording industry.
This was the second year of consecutive global growth for the industry, after 15 years of falling revenues (40% off).
Streaming, which accounts for than more 100 million users of paid subscriptions globally, makes up the majority of digital revenue, which, in turn, now accounts for 50% of total industry revenues. Record companies are driving this digital evolution, investing 4.5 billion dollars annually. Those investments break down into two major areas: the discovery and development of the artists (A&R) and the campaigns that promote artists and their music, bringing them to the attention of a global crowd, mainly through digital channels.

 

What about music consumption?

96% of internet users consume licensed music (audio streaming, video streaming, physical purchase, digital downloads and radio).
On average, consumers listens to music in 4 different licensed ways:

  1. 44% purchase physical copies of music or paid downloads
  2. 45% use audio streaming services for music
  3. 75% use video streaming services for music
  4. 87% listen to music on the radio

 

Streaming is embraced by music fans around the world who are increasingly engaged with various on-demand licensed digital services.
The dominance of video streaming among on-demand music streaming is hardly shocking but is instructive for the ongoing debate on the Value Gap (users upload contents of services such as YouTube, which are heavily used for music, yet do not return a fair value for this music to those investing in and creating it).

 

Digital trends in the music industry

  1. The “Fantastic Four” (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube) are securing their leading role as the main social platforms.
  2. A consistent and integrated web & social media presence is far more than mandatory for companies operating in the music industry.
  3. Thanks to the advanced targeting options and improved conversion tracking, social media paid advertising presents a huge opportunity to reach more music listeners at a lower cost.
  4. Personalized content marketing is the way to go! Content personalization is a strategy that exploits visitor or prospect data to deliver relevant content based on the interests and preferences of the target audience.
  5. E-Commerce is everywhere. The online purchase of products and services is now possible through any device and during the consultation of any digital content.
    E-commerce is becoming more and more an integrated part of the online experience, therefore artists have a huge opportunity to leverage social followings to generate supplementary sales via merchandise purchases.

 

Call for marketers

Even if Radio is still the top source for discovering new music, Social Media are becoming a discriminating factor of success.
As a natural consequence, nowadays there is an urgent call for marketers to develop breakthrough digital strategies to ensure the success of artists and their music.

The first step of any major label is to build the branding strategy of its artist, optimizing its visual identity for the different digital channels, still maintaining a consistent tone of voice, adopting a storytelling approach and tapping the most effective medium to deliver breathtaking contents.

Record labels also need to set up Spotify campaigns to gain new followers, plays and ultimately raise artists’ brand awareness.

In order to build a solid brand and maintain a high level of engagement with the fans, constantly generating quality content and posting it on Facebook and Instagram during the best times of the day is fundamental.

Furthermore, a smart digital marketer has to set a social media paid advertising strategy to earn extra reach and exposure among the right target of music listeners (thanks to the advanced targeted options) and drive them from the awareness phase, through consideration all the way to the advocacy phase.

More and more marketing decisions are data driven these days, and music marketers are taking advantage of new tools to collect data about the fans’ behavior and interests, to further fine-tune  and personalize future marketing campaigns.
I suggest that you take a look at Fangage and Linkfire.

But always remember that “we want to know what people are looking for, what their values are, and how can we meet their needs.
It’s not just about branding, campaigns, followers, reach and big data; it’s about translating that into the truth.”

My personal truth is “ Music is not what I do, it’s who I am”.