Addressing the International Music Scene
As 36% of the world's streaming and the world's largest streaming service, Spotify represents a fair valuation of the trends in online music.
Although Europe still accounts for the largest total number of users on Spotify, with the United States representing the largest single country, annual users from "rest of world" increased by almost 9X from 2016 to 2021. Compare this to ≈ 3X in Europe, the US and Latin America.
For new music operations looking for rising trends, the opportunity is in emerging markets.
The rise in streaming participation from emerging markets has substantial overlap with the proliferation of technology in those areas. The most telling example: The sudden popularity of Afrobeats in the global music scene was no coincidence. Nigeria represents the second-highest streaming country after the US and the highest growth rate in cell phone use (with still only 10-20% of the population online)!
The other trend to recognize: People are getting tired of the same old junk.
The world's top 4 record labels represent 87% of the music on the world's largest streaming service Spotify. Not so coincidentally, Spotify has also suffered loss in market share to Apple, Soundcloud and other rivals as its catalog gets more centralized.
The stock price hasn't done so well in 2022, either.
The writing is on the wall — people want something different, and web3 music platforms are attempting to give it to them. Next, we'll discuss some of these platforms, the issues they address and miss, and how Bluetail's unique vision and structure can help disrupt the legacy record business.
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