Product Adoption Life Cycle Of Music Streaming Product Service In India
Introduction:
India, a country where people have traditionally relied on radio and television to listen to music, now has over 200 million listeners using music streaming services.
While global players such as Spotify and Apple Music are trying to find their footing in the market, local players have already attracted millions of users with sizeable catalogs of Bollywood soundtracks, spiritual music, and regional favourites.
Various music apps right now available in the India market are as mentioned below:
Some highlights of Indian music streaming industry:
- Revenue in the Music Streaming segment amounts to US$393m in 2020.
- Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020–2024) of 7.8%, resulting in a market volume of US$530m by 2024.
- User penetration is 3.4% in 2020 and is expected to hit 4.2% by 2024.
- The average revenue per user (ARPU) currently amounts to US$8.32.
- In global comparison, most revenue is generated in the United States (US$6,014m in 2020).
Where does industry lies in the product adoption curve?
Below are some statistical data about the music streaming industry from now and from past:
When comparing the music consumption patterns of nowadays and those of only one decade ago, it is astonishing how deeply technological progress has influenced the (digital) music market. The disruptive impact of Music Streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music not only won the battle against illegal distribution, but also broke down all frontiers and made access to all kinds of music as easy as ever.
This can be said that now music industry in India has reached passed onto stage of early adoption and has established and gained the trust of the end user being in early majority and has now transitioned in “Late Majority” stage.
Profiles of product adopters (Innovators, early adopters, early majority and so on):
To drive online music industry to this level there is a crucial role of users who work as enthusiasts in using the products, provide guidance and feedbacks to develop the features and functionality to gain trust from other users. Now we will see how users will play a vital role in different stages of the product adoption lifecycle.
We categorise the users into different group as innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. These different categories of users play a crucial role in providing key ideas to develop the product for the next category of the users. Let us see how it happens in this case of the online music stores.
Innovators: The first set of people to use your product. They usually include open beta testers, tech reviewers and internet enthusiasts who keep a tab on the music space and are the first ones to test new products.
Early adopters are often opinion leaders. They are similar to innovators in how quickly they adopt, but they are more concerned about the coolness factor and maintaining their reputations as being ahead of the curve on new ideas.
Early Majority: These are users who usually look for tried and tested options with proven value. They are influenced by the blogs and reviews posted by the Innovators & Early Adopters. They are mostly tech-savvy millennials who own smartphones and audio gadgets, wouldn’t mind paying a subscription fee and have a penchant for the latest global music trends. They form a significant chunk of the user base.
Late Majority: These are people with a high degree of skepticism and who wait until a majority of society has adopted the product. They need more convincing than just good reviews of a new product. They won’t easily adopt a new product until they have a real need for it or there are no other alternatives and are convinced it’s of great value.
Laggards: These are people who are are typically averse to change and are the last ones to adopt a product. They are mostly advanced in age, stick to old technology and traditions or have low social status and financial fluidity.
Also all of these user types also get affected by the income levels of the user, education and other characteristics
Factors and challenges which affected the rate of music streaming service adoption:
The surge of internet usage created a fertile ground for the streaming services on the Indian market. The two historical players, Gaana and Saavn (known as JioSaavn since the 2018 merger) introduced their offers to the market on the verge of the 2010s — but the first explosion in terms of streaming user-base followed around 2015–2016.The digital revenues (that were mostly stagnant up to that point) grew 210% from 2015 to 2018. Local streaming services has broken into the mainstream and launched the transition to the new music distribution model. Reportedly, as of December 2018 streaming services counted 150 million users in India. However, that might be just the beginning.
Continuous Growth of Addressable Streaming Market:
With the telecom infrastructure reaching the most remote parts of the country, cheap data plans and governmental support, there’s no reason for the current digitalisation trend to slow down. And if it persists India will reach the ≈80% penetration figures quite quickly. That would mean that in the next few years the addressable audience of streaming will double to 1,100 million, potentially creating the single biggest streaming audience in the world.
Streaming Alternatives:
According to Nielsen, 94% of the online consumers in India listen to music — and 71% of them say that music is an important (or very important) part of their lives. If that’s the case, however, why the music streaming user base made up only 26% of the country’s online population back in 2018? The point is that streaming services are just one of the consumption channels available to the Indian consumer — and not necessarily the most attractive one.
Pirate Services:
When it comes to off-screen consumption, the biggest streaming alternative is pirate services. Currently, India is the first country in the world in terms of piracy rates. However, there’s a positive angle to the piracy problem: in the long-run, the legal alternatives are bound to take over. Piracy is still a huge problem today — but it’s nowhere near what it was five years ago, when, reportedly, 98% of all digital music consumption was unlicensed. With the governmental support and marketing budgets of all streaming services that are already on the market, illegal consumption is bound to turn into the ad-supported licensed listening, giving yet another push to the recording revenues.
Local Streaming Services Vs Global Giants:
Indian market is the main battleground of the global streaming market. As we’ve mentioned in our Mechanics of Streaming, developed markets like the US are now slowing down in terms of growth — and global services have turned to the emerging market as the primary source of new users.Earlier this year, Spotify and YouTube Music have entered the Indian market, less than a month apart — and now you probably see why. Counting more than a billion in the potential streaming audience, India is the single largest growth opportunity for the streaming market. Except for China, perhaps — but our guess is that Spotify, YouTube and alike won’t fly with the officials down there.The global streaming services are met with intense local competition, in the face of JioSaavn, Gaana and Wynk Music, each counting close to 100 million registered users. That is quite a head start, but since we’re talking about a billion-user market, it’s anyone’s guess how it will be split up in 5 years from now. Each of the streaming services has something to offer.
Growth and product adoption comparison with other music streaming services:
Few strategies and features music streaming services used to adopt the production lifecycle.
Growth hacks used:
Here are some growth hacks used from the online music service providers to promote the product and grow user base:
- Tying up with internet service provider to provide better connectivity to the apps.
- Launching light weight application for better user experience.
- Providing better offers to end users.
- Letting songs to be advertised on the platform.
- Giving the feature to the user to share the music from the platforms to other platforms like watsapp, facebook.
Summary:
To conclude being in era of the evolution in internet technology and the penetration of internet in the young population of India, music industry has a lot to gain from. As per the predictions music industry by the end of 2024 we would be looking at 1100 mn online users market, which becomes the most promising opportunity for this industry segment.
Being at the top of the product adoption life cycle curve, online music industry has growth and opportunities lying ahead.
Sources:
https://www.statista.com/outlook/202/119/digital-music/india