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“How Listeners In China Drive Streaming Music Engagement” plus 1 more |
How Listeners In China Drive Streaming Music Engagement Posted: 03 Jul 2020 06:30 AM PDT
Consumers Drive Your Music’s EngagementChina surpasses the West in streaming services. In the West music streaming is a dead end game, once you’ve got your music on the streaming services it is up to you to do your promotion by yourself or you pay someone to do it for you. Your followers follow you and your music gets streamed. Pretty straight forward. In China the motto is lead don’t follow. The approach is one of lean-in rather than lean-back. This is not about you the artist this is about making the consumers the leaders and how engagement is built into the services themselves.
China is at the Forefront of ConsumerismLets take a look at the general modern shopping culture of China for a moment to get a better picture of how this music consumption in China works. China is a laboratory of innovation and if you haven’t accepted it yet because of outdated stereotypical hang-ups, better get with the program because this is the future my friends. Ecommerce is moving at twice the speed of the USA, 500 million Monthly Active Users (MAUs) are buying on mobile phones, this is equal to the USA, Germany and the UK combined, and they are typically online three times longer. The markets there thrive by providing the consumers with an integrated consuming ecosystem, focused on ultra-convenience and spontaneity. You can do your grocery shopping on your mobile and get a basket of food to your door with live fish in 30 minutes. Trends are followed closely to fill the demands of the consumer by having micro studios that can tailor small orders of what is hot on the market at the moment at the demands of the consumer. In comparison to traditional retailers who provide seasonal collections with hopes the consumers will follow, like and buy. These virtual integrated shopping ecosystems are like an amusement park; bright, lots of colors, chaotic, fun and addictive, but most of all: social. You can do your shopping from the chat room, and then after purchases get product tips from celebrities and more shopping links.
Streaming Music is a Social ExperienceIn the West you get your music to the streaming services, do your promotion, and wait for followers, cool. In China the consumers are the ones driving the promotion car by having the tools to that create these social interactive environments. In the West if you like a song you are listening to you can “like” it and then, you can share it on some other SOME. Maybe your friend has a list of songs that you can check out or follow. Umm… what else, oh make a playlist. And that song you like would be so nice to sing if only you could find the lyrics, oh ya, have to look for them somewhere else. Lyrics are an integral part of the music experience. Until you listen to a song enough times your probably not going to be able to sing it lyric for lyric without the lyrics, get my lyric? So, the Chinese music streaming services make the listening experience more engaging by providing lyrics for their songs. Imagine shower karaoke with your waterproof mobile, hmm… The streaming services in China are much like their virtual shopping environments, interactive, social and consumer driven, and often you don’t even need to open another app. You can listen to music and leave comments there for other users to view, and often this can create hundreds and thousands of comments, this is only the beginning.
Banking on Fandom not ConsumerismWestern streaming services monetize on consumption, whereas in China they monetize on Fandom. By focusing on fandom a user environment is created that is much more than just listening to music and sharing links. The streaming services host the music, the story, and the fan, include video and social engagement all without having to leave the app. Think of the streaming services in China as if Spotify and Facebook had babies. The streaming services are extremely social and full of features. Comments galore dominate the followings of songs and artists. This way you the artist and you the listener can have direct contact, imagine that! In this case a song’s popularity is based on the amount of comments rather than the amount of plays, with songs that can have hundreds of thousands of comments songs with less that 1000 comments is considered not popular. Like children who come from the same tree don’t grow up to be the same but share the same characteristics so are the streaming services. Each one has its own strengths, features and user preferences but there is a very high social aspect across the platforms. You can create visuals and share a poster of that song that hits you right in the heart that words cannot express. On top of this there is the possibility to customize your user profile to make it uniquely you. Ahh, this song is so awesome the only thing that would make it better is if you could dedicate it. Much like when you call up a radio station and dedicate a song to a special someone, but this way your dedicated song and message would be sent out with a notification to your friend so it would not be missed. One possibility is to start or join a Party centered around an artist, band, genre or mood, like an interactive radio station. You, or an other host would be the DJ of a virtual room where fellow partiers would vote, leave comments and review song selections before they get plays or a fellow partiers can even have a chance a being DJ. Grow your own pet, kinda like the Tamagotchi pet, by listening to songs and participating in all features. Accumulate rewards to get a charity donation. Or if you are particularly fond of an artist you can contribute directly to your favorite artists. And of course this can all be linked back to your SOME accounts on Weibo and WeChat.
The Future of Music is in your HandsChina is leading the world in mobile consumerism, this is the future folks. The rest of the world is only starting to realize where we are heading. There will be more lock downs, Covid is not going to be the last one. There will be more virtual events, live streaming performances, listening sessions, and more. We are nearly 7.8 billion on this little planet. Build an infrastructure for your music by getting your music across platforms globally. For your future don’t wait for it to come to you, get a head start and get your music to China now.
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Posted: 03 Jul 2020 01:00 AM PDT Creativity DiverCreativity can be dangerous. It is fraught with anxiety, peril, isolation, displacement, boredom, dread, pain, and damnation. At the same time, the desire to create things seems to come from a joyful place. It’s the joy we experience when we accomplish the goal of finishing our work. Of course, there is the happiness we experience during the process. Then where’s the danger in undertaking a creative endeavor? Setting out on a creative journey is dangerous in that it’s a lot like exploring the bottom of an ocean.Be a WitchWitchcraft is a good metaphor for the creative process; it’s rooted in an ancient and arcane art. So, let’s imagine that you are a witch and you can breath under water; after all, this is an article about creativity. What do you think you would find? There would probably be pollution: garbage and waste of all sorts. What does the bottom of the ocean smell like? Is this a smell you can live with? On the surface, there would be enormous boats passing by: tankers and cruise ships. Drunken tourists toss bottles of beer or martinis at you from the luxury deck (remember, you’re a witch and, alas, after all of these years, you are still being persecuted). Suddenly, the ocean reveals itself as a not-so-friendly place. Will someone rescue you? “Any publication is an act, and that act exposes one to the passions of an age that forgives nothing.” – Albert Camus Just as you are about to abandon this hostile place, you pause. None of these things really bother you. In fact, you welcome them. You begin to explore and ask questions. You play with the fish and the wildlife of the sea. If a large fish tries to eat you, you make it go away. If rude tourists throw things at you, you can collect them and put them into a magic satchel; maybe you will use them for a spell one day. When the current gets rough, you brace yourself for the ride.Abandon All HopeA curious thing happens when you give up any hope of rescue: you begin to notice all of the things around you in much greater detail. They become part of your world. You’ve just given yourself a lot more scope and your field of vision has grown larger. Now, you have choices to make. The decisions you make become the blueprint for your project. How you make those decisions depends on your personality as an artist, your style, if you will. At some point, you miraculously find your way back to the surface and examine the bulk of your journey. You’ve learned a bit.Bon VoyageWhen you begin your creative project: Dive deep Accept danger as part of the process Be a witch: transform the raw materials of your journey Abandon the ship: get off the luxury deck and into the water Take a hard look at everything around you Cultivate joy and accomplish your goals Sinking to the bottom of the ocean is probably the best thing that can happen to you when you work on your project. If you are not seeing the danger in what you do, look a little harder beneath the surface of the water. Your creative project can be like walking into a construction zone; if it’s not, don’t worry, danger will find you. The more you do it, the less terrible it seems to be. You might even cultivate a certain amount of relaxation when undertaking a project. You can grow and you haven’t even used a single magic spell to do it. John Merigliano is a Philadelphia musician who performs under the moniker Pussyft. He likes to write about music, art, and creativity.This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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