SPOTIFY TEARED DOWN Spotify is the most popular audio-streaming subscription service in the world which offers users the opportunity to explore, discover, and curate their ideal soundtracks, all at their fingertips. This service was launched in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in response to concerns about the rise in music industry piracy. Since its launch, this digital platform has redefined how we listen to music and connect with the songs and artists we love.
With Spotify, listeners can discover, manage, and enjoy over 100 million tracks, 5 million podcasts titles, and 3,50,000 audiobooks along with many unique features. In this article, we would take a deep dive into Spotify's multiverse and explore its features, customer acquisition strategy and much more.
SPOTIFY HOOKING UP CUSTOMERS
Personalised Interface:
The marketing strategy of Spotify is all about making it easy for users to find their type of music. The user interface is designed to be highly personalised so that each user feels like they're getting a custom experience. This has helped Spotify build a large and loyal customer base.It has become easy for people to find and enjoy the music they love.
Collaborating with Top Musicians/Artists:
By collaborating with top artists, Spotify is able to utilise an artist's already existing fan base to market its product. This gets Spotify's name out to more potential customers and also creates a sense of coolness or exclusivity around the platform. Further, by keeping the artist's message pure, Spotify creates a more personal connection between the artist and their fans. In this way fans feel like they are connected to the artist in a deeper way, which again creates loyalty towards Spotify.
Event Marketing:
Event marketing is a great way to get people talking about your brand.Spotify has hosted a number of successful events, from intimate shows with famous artists to large-scale festivals featuring some of the biggest names in music. The company is often partnering with brands that share its target audience, which is an innovative approach.
SPOTIFY STANDOUTS
Spotify Wrapped:
Since 2016, every year from December 1, Spotify has brought users the best songs and podcasts of the year, along with usage data from January 1 to October 31. Spotify Wrapped is its name. Expanded views called "maps'' allow users to learn more about their hearing history. The most streamed songs, artists, genres and podcasts of the past year are displayed on a Spotify Wrapped card along with their favourite genre and also a top 100 playlist for the user.
Wrapped is a marketing campaign intended to promote Spotify. In addition to promoting the music streaming service by encouraging users to share about it on social media, the campaign has developed into a unique feature that is different from the offerings of rivals including Apple Music. In 2019, Spotify's head of marketing described this phenomenon as a "FOMO effect" which has encouraged people to use Spotify over other music apps. Spotify wrapped has played a major role in the success of Spotify by attracting a larger amount of audience towards the app.
Blend:
Blend is a personalised Spotify playlist that combines two users’ music tastes together, and facilitates a combined playlist of those two users along with a “taste match score '' that shows them how similar or different their listening preferences are. So whether you’re keeping up with what your bestie’s listening to, or sharing your music with someone new it's a great way spotify marketed their app through this.
Uniquely Yours:
Spotify has a selection of specific playlist types that are visible in the 'Made for you' section of the app. Right on top, users will see a section called 'Uniquely Yours. ' This may include seasonal playlists, like 'Time Capsule' and 'Your Summer Rewind. Though it faced backlash for being not so accurate still many of the users really love that spotify creates a special playlist so that they can look upon similar taste songs and also listen to some old songs they used to earlier.
Canvas Feature:
Spotify Canvas allows artists to add a new visual dimension to their music with 3-8 second looping videos that play any time listeners stream a designated track. This is one of Spotify's cool video features, like video podcasts, that's bringing a visual element to the streaming app like a mini music video.
Spotify boasts that Canvas helps artists enhance their songs on the platform and that the "possibilities for storytelling, context, world-building, and audience outreach are enormous." There's numbers backing that claim too. Spotify data shows that when listeners see a Canvas they are 5% more likely to listen to a track longer, 145% more likely to share a track, and 20% more likely to add that track to a playlist. And even the users love this feature as it makes the app's interface look a lot better and the user's experience is also better.
Podcasts:
Spotify is one of the top podcast listening apps with more than five million shows. With so many options, it can be overwhelming for listeners to find great content. Spotify uses ratings and reviews to help listeners identify the best shows. It also provides a better listening experience for podcasts to the customers compared to other rival streaming apps.
SPOTIFY'S FREEMIUM: A FLOW OR A DISS
Changes:
Along with a lot of ads between songs and no offline access now spotify now has imposed harsh restrictions on its free tier users in India. These users will no longer be able to manually play songs in a specific order or rewind. They also won't be able to repeat songs, go back to previous songs, or select a specific part of a song. Essentially, it is moving its customer base from free to paying consumers. Even though the majority of users find this distasteful, it will only raise Spotify's revenue.
Advantages:
Companies are able to acquire potential users and retrieve their user information and data
They are able to make revenue on ads
It provides a large amount of brand awareness without requiring much customer support.
Disadvantages:
Free users hardly convert to paid users
A lot of features on the free version may hinder users from upgrading to a premium version
Users may get tired of a free version that doesn't offer additional attractive features
Impact on customer base:
One of Spotify's advantages with its freemium business model is the range of features available to users; if these features are reduced, Spotify might have more difficulty attracting new members. A lot of existing customers who might not be willing to pay would switch to alternative platforms or even engage in piracy. Other rivals might also take advantage of this by continuing to provide those basic services for free which might further plummet down spotify’s market share.However, since Spotify has been a major player for a while, it's also possible that users who have been using the app for a while may actually consider buying their plans due to the experience it offers, which could increase their subscriptions through
Word of mouth and other marketing strategies.
SPOTIFY’S RHYTHMIC RIVALS
1. Apple music:
Apple Music arrived in 2015 becoming one of the main rivals of the company.
It secured exclusive deals with artists like Drake, Frank Ocean and Taylor Swift to stream their music first.It offers customers access to an extensive library of songs, playlists, and albums in addition to a number of special features and services that set it apart from spotify along with other competitors:
In order to cater to music enthusiasts who value sound quality , Apple came up with lossless and Hi-Res audio in 2021 which enables users to enjoy their favourite songs in a higher quality than many of its rivals.
By integrating spatial audio with dolby atmos , Apple provided an immersive hearing experience to its users who can now get a three dimensional sensation while hearing music.
Apple seamlessly incorporates all of their devices with help of the apple ecosystem which enables users to access and sync their apple music library across all of their devices.
2. Youtube music:
Spotify faces tough competition from youtube music due to the following reasons:
When it comes to the catalogue, YouTube arguably has one of the largest catalogue of music videos, albums, live performances and cover videos on the planet.
At any point while watching a video, you can turn off the visuals and turn to the audio-only version of the song and should you decide to turn the video back on, it will play the visuals from that exact spot where your song is at that time.
Yt music also offers a data saver feature built inside the app that allows users to control a slew of factors from audio quality and video quality to the ability to download only over a Wi-Fi connection.
Personalised Recommendations: The best thing about the app,are its recommendations. YouTube Music uses the machine learning algorithm that powers Google Play Music to recommend tracks to its listeners.
CONCLUSION
Spotify has seen incredible growth since it was first founded in 2006. Today, the company boasts over 500 million active users, and it is one of the most popular streaming services in the world. Looking ahead, Spotify will continue to grow by expanding its reach into new markets. Spotify is already available in over 178 countries, but there are many countries where Spotify is not yet available.
While Spotify has achieved a great deal of success, it still faces challenges as it looks to the future. One of the biggest challenges is how to convert free users into paid subscribers. Spotify offers a free tier that includes ads, but many users never upgrade to the premium ad-free service. Spotify has tried to combat this by introducing new features and making its premium service more affordable while limiting the features for the free users.
Another challenge is competition from other streaming services. Spotify is the market leader, but it faces stiff competition from Apple Music, Amazon Music, and now even youtube music attracting a major amount of audience to its platform. Spotify will need to continue innovating if it wants to stay ahead of the pack.
Finally, Spotify will continue its efforts to become the go-to platform for podcast discovery and listening. Spotify has already made significant progress in this area, and it is well-positioned to capitalise on the growing popularity of podcasts.
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