Radars to guide us within an infinite music offer
Playlists have become a fundamental tool for discovering, consuming and marketing music in the digital world.
Since streaming services revolutionized the industry, a seismic shift accompanied the movement and music is no longer distributed in the same way. Now, with several platforms and millions of listeners throughout the world, distribution channels are multiplying and playlists are a fundamental pillar when it comes to building any successful strategy. Before, the physical product dictated how to listen to your favorite music: you identified a new album, bought it and took it home. If you had a portable player, you would probably listen to it the whole way. You would then treasure it as a complete entity: an artistic statement with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The album would tell you a story, it would take you on a journey with the artist to an unexpected place of his creativity. After the change from the physical to the digital, the world is different: what is consumed are songs and each consumer can listen to them how and where they want.
The hidden treasure behind playlists
Understanding the alchemy of the perfect playlist is the work of wizards or enchanters. For the untrained eye, you might think that the famous playlists are little more than a series of media files played sequentially or in random order; but not. Playlists are actually much more. Since digital technology was imposed and is part of the daily life of each person, the songs are discovered and played one by one. They are no longer confined to the context of an album. It doesn’t happen like that, not anymore. And what is the consequence of this change? Simple: there is a clear need to create an efficient (organic) mode, which allows organizing, categorizing and accessing billions of songs. Like most treasures, like the precious resource of spring water, playlists installed themselves and quickly became an essential tool trusted by listeners, artists, record labels, and streaming services.
The current landscape of the recording industry has all the colors of the charts. In fact, there are more than two billion active playlists on Spotify alone. While it’s common for ordinary citizens, celebrities and even a variety of brands to create and share their own playlists, the most popular ones are often curated by the streaming platforms themselves. Services like Spotify and Apple have created thousands of personalized playlists that cover all genres, moods, and circumstances. Featured playlists that are managed by curators often have millions of followers. Statistics show that being included in one of Spotify’s sponsored playlists can generate an increase in reproductions that varies between 50 and 100%, with a sustained growth that, after the initial push, is around 20% continuous. Securing a spot on these charts can mean a 180-degree turn for an artist’s popularity and success, ensures spreading of their profile, and makes them an excellent showcase for accessing new and varied audiences.
And why are they so important?
It is not easy to find the exact number, but different sources of information indicate that there are around 40 million songs to choose from, and of course new ones are added every day. Discovering fresh and interesting music within this practically infinite offer is an almost herculean task. Today’s high-speed, instant-access media reality demands resources that allow consumers to access the content they want without spending hours searching. Interest in radio continues to decline and simultaneously the number of people subscribing to different streaming services is increasing. This implies that in every distribution strategy of large, medium or small record companies, playlists are the spearhead.
With millions of songs available just a click away, most people don’t want to sit down and play one by one until they find their next musical obsession. The average consumer needs to jump lightly into a menu of catchy, exciting, and engaging songs. You want music that was custom-picked, specifically to your liking, but with almost no input from you, and you also want it to be easily accessible. Playlists meet precisely all these conditions.
Pandora, a new radio format with more than 85 million users
Pandora is a streaming platform that allows you to create personalized radio stations based on the artists or songs that the user prefers. When the consumer selects a certain song or artist, the application automatically collects and plays songs with similar characteristics.
Music Brokers has just closed a very important deal with Pandora. And from December 2022, its most successful playlists will be thematic radios within the service. This way, Vintage Reggae Café, Bossanova Chill Out, Jazz Covers Popular Songs, Vintage Café and Lounge (Bar & Café) will become permanent radios within Pandora’s extensive offer. “Our most successful playlists are now themed radio stations on Pandora and we are very excited about our launches on the platform,” said Federico Scialabba, CEO of Music Brokers.
Music Brokers
MB Entertainment Business Group
Federico Scialabba